New Beginnings
by Sketch0117
Summary: After a thraumatizing breake up with Mindy, Josh meets a girl that makes him feel happy again. But when something that no one can control starts affecting this girl, will Josh lose the oportunity of being happy again? Josh/OC and eventual Drake/Lucy
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everyone, my name is Maria and I am new in fanfiction. I'm from Panama, so if I do write something with a bad grammar let me know. I have been reading fanfiction for, like, 3 months ago. And then, I started my own stories and I think this is the best one. If it isn't, pleaseeee, no flames.**

**Disclaimer: I own anything, just my crazy ideas XD.**

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Josh POV.

I've been waiting for the summer to end, because this summer is the rest of the problems I've been through last year. At the beginning of last year, some thing started to work for me. I get diagnose with diabetes, so I started to do training every weeks. I lost weight and my health got better. The training helped me to get away from the problems at home. Here is where the story turns wrong. My parents, well, my father and my step mom whom I care a lot about, as if she was my biological mother, were breaking down. Since my dad cheated on my mom, everything got worse. My mom started to cry a lot and be depressed all the time. She took anti-depressive pills, but that only made her intoxicate a couple of times. My dad started to drink and be away from home a lot. And when he came back, there was always a fight between them. It seemed to be only affecting me, because Meghan was always at her friends' house, and Drake really couldn't care less. When my dad was gone, I was the one that had to deal with my mom. I cried silently with her a lot of times at night. I used to think of my dad as a role model, and now, as you can imagine, I only think of him as a man that threw his career and his family and all his effort to make us happy to the trash. The only thing that seemed to stay by my side through all was my girlfriend Mindy. She was really understanding with my problems and always made me feel that I was going to be fine. I even believed it a couple of times. I tried to spend as much time as possible with her. At afternoon I would leave and go to her house. And when I couldn't because my mom was really down and I was scared of leaving her alone, she would come to my house and help me to take care of my mom. Most of the times, we weren't making out, just talking. But one horrible day in May, even Mindy got away from my life. A few weeks before that, she was being really secretive and when I asked her for help, she started to give me a cold shoulder. I told Drake about it and he only said that the girls are sensitive and stuff like that, but I knew something was wrong. I walked that afternoon over to her house, and I saw it. There was an ambulance and two police cars out of her house. Her parents and her brother were outside crying. While her father got upstairs to look for something, her mother walked over to me and told me these exact words:

"Josh, you made our daughter happier than ever. Since she had been on the psychiatric hospital after blaming Drake of the incident at school, nothing we could possibly do brought our happy Mindy back. Only you did. After she got out of the hospital, she was diagnosed as a chronic depressive and a bipolar person. That meant that today she could be the happiest girl in Earth, but tomorrow she could be miserably depressed. A few weeks ago, we decided to move because of my husband's job, and she got depressed about leaving you. She told us that you needed her and that she loved you, and that she rather be dead than leaving you. And she got so depressed. And today, she didn't get out of her room. And her cries were so loud that we could hear them downstairs. When we stop hearing her cries, I came up to her room just to see if she was okay. But she killed herself by sleep pills."

My hearth was in pieces after I heard that, I started to cry, but I didn't sob. I felt so helpless. Her mother came to me and hugged me, whispering "I'm so sorry, Josh". Then Mr. Crenshaw walked to us and handed me a letter. And then he told me:

"Thank you so much Josh, for make our daughter's life special when we couldn't." -He said before adding- "Her funeral will be on Tuesday, we would be really pleased if you'd come. We know she didn't have a lot of friends, so it's okay if your brother does not come."

I could see the hurt in him, and he had always been a cold man. Mindy told me that when she was a kid, she used to give him a kiss on the cheek and tell him goodnight before go to sleep, but she realized that he was always uncomfortable when she did that, so she stopped doing it. I told them thanks and get back to my home feeling so lonely and broken. The person that I was considering as the love of my life killed herself at the thought of leaving me. And I was alone in this. I really had nobody. I got upstairs to my room, Drake wasn't there as always. But this time, I was thankful. I opened the letter and I read it. The letter said this:

_Dear Josh:_

_I am really sorry about the damage and pain I am causing you and my family, but specially you. We felt alone at the same time. We opened up to each other to calm our pains. I can't believe my family wanted to take me away from the only thing I ever loved when I walked around Earth: you. You were able to forgive me when I almost got your brother to a reform school. I was so exigent with you when we started this relationship. The thought of being in a place without you helping me, was just horrible. I know I left you in a moment where you need me so much. But I just couldn't stand it. The thing is just so messed up. When I looked at our pictures for last time, I saw us happy, and I can't imagine how you are holding on. I need you to be strong, because I know you are and I know you are going to find someone that will make you happier than I could ever make you. You deserve to be so happy and successful. I love you so much, don't ever forget that. Please Josh, just be stronger than me._

_Love you always and more,_

_Mindy._

The next two or tree months, I could refer as myself as a zombie. I barely got out of bed, and barely eat and barely sleep. My life wasn't life anymore. The only things that made me hold on were my mother and Mindy's wish, for me to be stronger. My mom told us about two weeks ago that finally she and my dad are getting divorced and that one part of the demand is that my father has to go to rehab if he wants to see us. I'm happy that my mother finally reacts in front of the situation, but being my father I know I'm going to miss him. I can't wait for the school to start because I know it will help me to forget about my problems, and I will go back to training. I can only hope one thing; the school will heal my bruises.

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_**Soooo what do you think????? This is just the prologue, and in the new chapters a new girl will come into Josh's life. Please review… If you can.**_

_**Bye, thanks for reading.**_


	2. School and New Faces

**Hello everyone, how are you? This is the new chapter, the beginning of school.**

**Hope you like it. Enjoy!!!**

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Here I am, at Belleview High School, feeling a little bit at "home". I got up this morning feeling really excited, that is something really weird. I prayed so hard to be feeling like this, and forget about… everything else. I'm coming across the parking lot, seeing a lot of new faces around, but a lot of them as well, are knew faces. Eric and Craig came to me and told me some encouraging words, like: "Don't worry Josh, you'll be fine", "Mindy would be really pleased if you make it today and the rest of the year". Some of them helped me, but I have to do it by my own. Then Ms. Haffer came to me and did the same. She was being nice to me, and I know she didn't like Mindy. Drake was being a little more supportive, but when we got to school, he started to recover his "social life". So I am on my own right now, but that doesn't bother me anymore. I get my schedule, and opened my locker. Just when I'm walking to class with my eyes on my feet, I beat on something. I looked down at the girl I knocked down. She seems new, I have never seen her here. She has middle-neck length hair, black and beautiful. Her skin is so white and clear. She's like my height, thin but toned, so I think she's the athletic type. She has a bang that covers part of her forehead and she has hazel eyes. She is wearing black converse, dark blue jeans, a black Request shirt and a dark green coat. She is so beautiful, and totally my type. She shouldn't be good enough for the other guys, but she is perfect for me. Just when I am staring at her, she snaps me out of my trance.

"Hey, I'm so sorry. I'm new here, and I was looking at my schedule so I didn't see you." Her voice is so beautiful, I could hear her forever. I help her up and hand her books to her.

"No, it's my fault, I didn't see you either. My name is Josh." I'm smiling but my voice is shaking from the nerves.

"It's nice to meet you, Josh. I'm Anneliese." She says with a shrug. It reveals her smile. Is so beautiful that even made me smile too.

"That's a beautiful name. What class do you have?" The bell hasn't ring yet, but we are almost the only ones in the hallway.

"I have English, what about you?" Haha. Point for me. I hold out my arm and ask her

"I have English too, may I walk you?" She giggles and holds out her arm and tangles it with mine.

At class, we had the chance of sitting together; she is so intelligent and responsible. She took notes about everything and pays attention even more than I do. She distracts me so much that half hour all I did was stare at her. We walked to our different classes later. When lunch time came, I brought an apple, a salad and an orange juice. I come to my current table, where Eric, Craig and a new guy named Donovan are sitting. Just when I'm eating, I saw that Anneliese is looking for a table. I call her name, and when she sees me, she flashes me that smile that makes me feel alive again. Not to sound corny. She comes to our table and sits down right next to me.

"Well, guys, this is Anneliese, she is new here. Anneliese, these are Eric, Craig and Donovan." I introduce my friends.

"Hello" They say at the same time. Eric looks at her curiously and asks.

"Where are you from?"

"I'm from Germany, but my family moved out of there this summer." She says smiling.

"Tell us more details about you." Donovan asks, seeming really interested in Anneliese family.

"Well, my parents are really catholic; I was raised with that basement. My dad is Joseph Michel, he is a lawyer and has a fabric in Baviera, the district where we used to live. My mom is Anna and she is really caring about me and my sisters. She and my father always told us to live according to God's disposition. They always told us that this is the way to be happy, and they are right. We leave Baviera because of our parents will. They were concerned about some subjects there, so we moved here. I didn't care too much about it because I am predisposed to be sick, but moving here had make me feel a lot better. I thing is the surroundings. I have 3 little sisters: Sarah, Jane and Diane."

"Wow." That's all I could say. That was really interesting, and made me understand some other things about her. Before I could still thinking, she says:

"Yeah, but I am really grateful about it. My parents are my role models; they have made me the person I am." With that, I remember about my mom and my dad. I hope I could think about them as role models too.

"Yeah, when your parents think about you, all their decisions are based in your happiness." Craig added. The others nodded in agreement, including me.

"Changing the subject, have you choose the clubs you are going to join?" Anneliese pointed out. I haven't thought about it, you know? I think I'll go with the usual.

"I'm going to join Ecology, Dispute, Photography, Drama…" I started. Craig and Eric agreed.

"Yeah, us too. We always join the same clubs." Eric explained.

"I always liked to play instruments, I play piano and guitar." She said. She was so talented, sweet, smart… Oh my God, what's wrong with me?

"Then you should join school Symphonic Band, they are really good and welcoming." Craig said. The rest of us nod our heads in agreement.

"Yeah, I should." She said smiling but looking down at her food. She was almost done. We kept talking about school in general, and I was getting more and more into this girl. Her desires of living are so contagious that they get to me. I never thought I could long for living normally and happily again. But she makes me want this. Before I could even solve what was happening to me, the lunch time was over. We told her goodbye and continued with our classes. At the end of the school, Anneliese walked to me at the parking lot, smiling at me.

"Josh, I was wondering about something." She said, but she wasn't nervous at all.

"Sure, you can tell me." I tell her reassuringly.

"Would you like to go to the carnival of the Ecology Society of the school at Saturday?" She tells me while handling me a poster. It was to collect money.

"Sure, would you come with me?" She smiles even wider and hugs me.

"Thanks so much Josh is so easy to talk to you" She said in a cheerful tone and pulls back. I watch her as she get lost in the waves of students that are exiting the school. But a voice snaps me out of my staring.

"Who is she?" I look to my right and see Drake looking at me with a questioningly look.

"She is new, her name is Anneliese." And she is perfect, I say in my mind.

"So, you like her." He says with a happy, but small smile tugging on his lips.

"What???? Nooo, she's just my new friend. Only a few people besides me and the guys had known her this far." He gives me knowingly look before adding.

"You guys have a date, I'm proud of you." She pats my back and before I could think in anything else, I realize that ME AND ANNELIESE ARE GOING TOGETHER TO THE CARNIVAL!!! My head is screaming and yelling with joy, but as I drive to my house, I accept the fact that I am falling for Anneliese Michel, and falling hard. It's exciting, but it scares me to death.


	3. Dreams and Old Friends

**Here is the new chapter. Enjoy!!!!**

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I get to my house and called my trainer to ask him for recover our routine of exercise. He was really glad that I have made my decision of be a happy person again. I did my homework and here I am, watching TV, but thinking about my "date". Lucy and Drake worked things out again. I like her, she is really sweet and I think she could change Drake. Anyways, Lucy was about to come to the house and I'm not planning on staying in my room all afternoon. Today is my day off of work. I talked to Ellen about working again there. She told me that she really missed me and that she would be so happy if I start working again. I started yesterday and it was cool, I get distracted and I am really happy about how things are going. Just when I'm thinking about it, Lucy comes in and smiles at me.

"Josh, oh my God, I'm so happy to see you" she says, comes to me and hugs me. I hug her back and tell her.

"Me too, I thought you would never forgive Drake, but I'm so glad to see you again." She looks at me in the eye and gives me a sad smile.

"I heard about everything, I'm so sorry, but please, be happy again. You deserve it." I feel like my heart sunk. I've dreamed about being with Mindy again, only to wake up and realize that is just a dream.

"It's okay, I'll try. Thanks." I tell her and she smiles again. She hugs me again, and I can't help but cry silently a tear in her hair. She makes me feel better; I hope she will continue with Drake.

"Don't cry, Josh, you don't deserve it." She removes a tear from my cheek and looks at me in the eye.

"It's just that I miss her, so, so much." I say looking and feeling down.

"I know, please be strong." This is ironic, that was Mindy's last wish. I couldn't help but cry another tear. Right there when she's hugging me, Drake appears and says

"Awww look at the poor Joshy, he is down today." He says, his voice like a little school girl's, like there is no big deal. I'm not up to this crap anymore. I say goodbye to Lucy and glare at Drake. I got to my car, and when I step in, I started to cry hard this time. When the problems at home started, I used to dream about me and Mindy, just us, being happy and strong together. Now I am lost and I have to do it on my own. I don't dream anymore, because I can't even sleep. I rest my forehead against the car's wheel. It's like 4:30. I started to drive to the cemetery. I need Mindy so much this time. I get there and go to where her grave is. Her crave has the form of a temple. In one of its walls there is photo of her. She looked so beautiful. I start crying so bad, but I need to let that out. There is some advice that says: "Here, Mindy Crenshaw rests, after decide her destiny. She was born in September, 12th, 1991. And she dies May, 28th, 2008." I cry at the memory of that awful day. There is an angel of silence outside, to the right of her crave. I cry looking at her photo.

"I need you so much right now, Mindy." I say, but I know she would never hear me. But I had to try. Then I feel a hand on my shoulder. Is Lucy, with tears in her eyes. She sat at my level and puts her arm around my back. I put my head on her shoulder. She is really my best friend. Even if things between her and Drake don't work out, I'll be her friend no matter what, because I really need one right now. I appreciate her so much at this point. I cry for like 15 minutes more, and stand up, offering my hand to Lucy. She takes it and stands up with me.

"Drake is a jackass, I get how you feel. I know what is to need someone that you had some time, is so hard to know that one way or another, you'll never get to see them again. I felt like that when my brother died in a car accident." I remember then that her brother and she had a car accident. She told us some day, that when the car was about to crash against them, her brother looked at her and that she would never forget the look in his eyes. It was full of sadness, quilt, and fear. I run a hand through my hair as she added

"You should be feeling worst, she was your girlfriend. You loved and needed her so much." "I still do" I added rapidly.

"I know, you deserve to be so happy, Josh." My heart sunk at her words.

"That was what Mindy said to me in the letter. She told me that I deserve to be happy, that I must be stronger than her, that I will find someone that will make me happier than she could ever make me." A couple of tears escaped my eyes. But then I remember about Anneliese, about her smile and her everything. I could feel my face lifting up. Lucy looks at me and tells me

"Are you thinking about the German new girl?" I stopped walking and look at her confused

"How do you know about that?" She shrugs and looks at me.

"You were so distracted about her, and I saw you smile a couple of times this morning." I couldn't help but smile at the memory.

"You are right, she is changing me. She makes me long for living happy." I say a little dazed about what I have just said. Maybe this is what Mindy wants for me.

"Then why don't you guys hook up?" she asks.

"We are supposed to meet on Saturday to go to the carnival together. I think that is a date, I really want to get to know her more."

"I'm so glad."

"Do you wanna go to the Premiere?" I ask her, I'm not in the mood of staying at home. My mother is working and she hasn't been depressed for almost a week. I'm so proud of her. Lucy didn't hesitate in saying yes. I laugh and walk with her to my car. Ellen is in turn today, so I think she can give us free tickets. I want to see a horror movie, they are the most exciting. We decided to watch The Revenge, a new movie. Was so cool, but Lucy was having a hard time. Her face was so funny. I drive her home and come to my house. My mother was in the living room, talking on the phone. She sees me and smiles and waves me her hand. I'm so proud of her, she is being so strong. She hangs up the phone and I walk to the sofa where she is sitting.

"Hey Josh, where were you?" She asks smiling.

"I was with Lucy at Premiere; I hope you didn't mind it." I say sitting next to her.

"No, not at all, after I finished at the office I had the chance to go to the beauty salon." She says. I give her a kiss on the cheek and stand up.

"I'm going to my room, if you need anything, you can find me there." She smiles and pats me in the arm.

I get to my room and check on my laptop. I check on Myspace, and someone added me. It's Anneliese. She looks so pretty in her profile picture. She is next to her sister Sarah that looks a lot like her, but has long hair, as black as Anneliese's. They are in the living room of her house, I think. I start checking on her page, and she has a lot of pictures where she is in her house at Baviera. It was really beautiful. She has a picture where she is playing the piano. Someone took that photo of her from in front of the piano. Her eyes are so focused. She should be good at playing instruments. She is online too. I start a conversation with her.

Josh:

Hey Anne.

I write it, I hope she doesn't mind the nickname.

Anneliese:

Wuzz up, Josh

Josh:

Nothing, just chilling with my laptop, I have homework to do, but I'll do it later

Anneliese:

You are so lazy haha.

Josh:

I'll do it, don't worry ;)

Anneliese:

You better do ¬¬

Josh:

Okay Mom

Anneliese:

Haha, you think that's funny? How much homework do you have?

Josh:

I have English, United States History and Spanish

Anneliese:

You haven't done English work?

Josh:

No, I was at Premiere's. I work there, but today was my day off, so I decided to watch a movie

Anneliese:

Lazy ass, you better finish your homework ¬¬

Josh:

Haha, Ok, you are right. See ya!

Anneliese:

Of course, bye Josh!

Anneliese is out of line.

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I start with English, and I finish it in 5 minutes. Soon, I'm over with my homework. Its 9:36 p.m. I feel kinda sleepy, so I bath, letting the water relax and fresh me. I get on my pajamas. It was a boxer and a white, tight V-neck shirt. After the workouts, I could get some abs, so I'm not ashamed of my body anymore. But I don't show it off all the time, like Drake does. He is in a concert right now, I think. Well, that does not matter. I drift off to sleep. My dreams were really confusing. I was at my house, and I was alone in the living room. It was a rainy afternoon. Then, my parents show up, seeming really happy. I feel happy too, but I still have some resent about my dad. He walks over to me, with a quilt look in his eyes. He looks down and I see his eyes a little watery. Before he could say something, I hug him and he hugs me tight, so I can tell he had missed me. I pat his back and look at him with a small smile in my lips. But then, I wake up just to realize that it was just a dream, like so many times that I've dreamed about being with Mindy again. I forget about it and go shower again. I'm happy because tomorrow is the carnival and I am so excited. I think I'm going to have the time of my life with her and all the fun there. A perfect date, to me, would be a carnival. Is fun and lay back, so you can talk about everything and nothing, without feeling awkward. It hadn't been any awkward moment between Anneliese and me 'till now, because I know there is so much that I can ask her and talk about with her. You have fun, and you can now someone better. A date to the movies is not a good one for me. You can't get to know the person. I'm really excited, and I wonder if she feels this way too. She didn't seem nervous at all when she asked me, so I guess she is not. She is shy and quiet, but when she knows someone, I can tell her confidence is high. I'm really happy about meeting her, is like a new chance in happiness, but I can only hope she feels the same way. I'm sure this date is going to determinate that, and I hope this is going to go well. I feel so comfortable around her, and I can tell she feels the same way too. But I wish there is something more, like is happening to me.


	4. Carnivals and meetings

I'm going back from school. I talked with Anneliese about the date tomorrow. She told me to pick her up at 5:30. It's going to be so fun. I think she likes me; she is always smiling at me and talks to me all the time. By the way, we are partners in biology. She is always laughing with me and we never get bored together. She told me that she talked about me with her parents. She says they want to know me, because they were really pleased to know that their daughter has a friend here. She had talked with some other people here in the school too, and they like her, I mean, who wouldn't? But she prefers to hang out with me. We have little things in common. We like the same kind of music. I don't like to dress the way guys use to, I like to dress formally, like her, and she looks beautiful that way. There is going to be some kind of disco in one side of the carnival, and it will start at 7:30. I'm no sure if she likes to dance, but if she does, I will get there with her. Her parents are religious, but she told me that they let the decision of following God, to their will. Of course she decided to be a catholic like them. Her sisters and her brother decided it too. She told me that her three sisters are: Jane that is 14 year old, Sarah which is 16, and Diane, which is 12. They are a beautiful family, and I can tell they are happy. They are workers, sweet, lovely… But I still have to meet them. Sarah is at the school too. She is smart and sometimes she sits with us. She looks a lot like Anneliese in personality, even as much as in physically. She doesn't hang out with us, so I can't say too much. I'm planning on telling her about Mindy tomorrow, if the situation is needy. I want her to know, is almost painful to keep things from the person you like so much. This feeling has been increasing as much time I spend with her. She is opening to me and I feel I _need _to do the same to her. It's almost an urge. I pick up the clothes I'm wearing for tomorrow. I pick up a black T-shirt with a white long sleeve-shirt down it, my new Diesel jeans and my black converse, Kurt Cobain edition. I buy the one that has the handwrite of his suicide letter in white. I like the outfit. I'm sure she is going to look gorgeous as always. I have to go work so I have to do my homework and study right now.

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Next Day: 4:30 p.m.

I'm so excited; I'm going to pick up Anneliese in 30 minutes. I go to the bathroom and shape. Then, I bath. The hot water made me feel so relaxed. I wash my hair with Dove shampoo, so it's always smelling good, and is always soft. When I'm out, I put my underwear and the long sleeve shirt. Then, I put on my jeans. Then the T-shirt. I think I look good. I put on my Boss perfume. I want to give the best impression to Anneliese parents. I get to my car and get in. I drive to where her house is. It's so beautiful. Is a German style house, with four bedrooms. The fence is a tall black one. It's open so I get in. When the front door is in front of me, Anneliese opens the door, looking beautiful as always. She is wearing a Greenpeace outfit that hugs her in the right places, without looking sluty. She doesn't wear a lot of make up, and I like it.

"Hey Josh, is nice to see you." She hugs me and kisses me on the cheek.

"Come in so you can meet my parents." I put my hand where her lips have been before, and I swear I can still feel them in my skin.

I follow her to inside of the house, and soon we are in the living room. I watch as her parents and sisters are sitting in the couch, watching American Idol.

"Mom, dad, this is Josh." She introduces me and her parents stand up.

"Hello Josh, I'm Joseph, Anneliese father. Is a placer to meet you." He says as he shakes my hand. He is smiling, and that makes me feel so comfortable. He is pale and his hair is blonde. It is kind of reddish.

"Nice to meet you too Sr." I say politely, smiling when I finish.

"And I'm Anna, nice to meet you dear." She says, and I feel a lot comfortable.

"Nice to meet you too, Ms. Michel." I say. Then, her sisters come.

"I'm Diane, nice to meet you." She says. She looks like her father a lot. She has reddish hair too, and she has it combed in two braids. Her face is full of freckles that make her look so innocent.

"And I'm Jane." She says extending her hand. She has blonde long hair.

"Nice to meet you all. Thanks for invite me." Her parents smile at each other, look at Anneliese (that is standing next to me) and then to me.

"No problem, Josh. Anneliese had told us how many things you guys have in common, and how welcoming and responsible you are." I smile and look at Anneliese, who is blushing, and she looks at me.

"She is too much for words too." I say, blushing a bit. She smiles at me so much that I smile too.

"We better let you leave." Her parents give her the blessing and kiss her on the cheek.

"Bye Josh." Ms. Anna hugs me and then Mr. Joseph comes and shakes my hand with a polite smile. I smile back.

"Have fun and take care." They say before we parted from the house.

We walk until we get to my car. I open the door for her and she smiles and mutter "Thank you"

I get in too. When we are in, I look at her and we start giggling like fools.

"That went well" I say and she stops giggling. I look at her and ask

"What's wrong?"

"Did you mean what you say in there, that I was too much for words?" I look at her and say, barely a whisper

"Of course I did." She smiles at me with that beautiful smile.

"Let's go." I say and pull into the street. When we get there, it looks so funny and beautiful. The carnival is putted up in a field, full of green grass. When we are there, we start to play. In a challenge of strength, I win a big Teddy Bear for her. She hugs it all the way.

Then, I see one of those cabins where you can take pictures. I tell her and she nods excitingly at the idea. We get there and I pay for 6 photos. We enter the cabin and there is two sits. She sits in one and me in another. The first flash, I put an arm over her shoulders and she leans her head in my shoulder. The second was when I fall from my chair and she starts laughing. I sit straight again and she still doesn't stop laughing. The flash appears again when I send a mock glare at her while she keeps laughing. Then she stands up and gives me a massage in my shoulders, because there is where I hurt myself. I relaxed and closed my eyes. There is where the flash shots again. Then she leans her head down and softly kissed my cheek. The flash shots at that moment. I almost don't notice that because of her breath that is still on my face. I turn my head and look at her lips and then at her eyes. That's when we kiss. Her lips are so soft and I think the butterflies in my stomach are freaking birds now. We reaffirm places then, as she sits down next to me. I didn't notice when the flash shots. When we are still kissing, I remember Mindy, not like I thought of her while kissing Anneliese, I remembered all what happened, and I knew that I needed to get completely over with my past to be happy with Anneliese. I pull away and rest my forehead against hers.

"I have something to tell you." I say she pulls away and looks at me in the eye.

"What's wrong?" She reaches out and touches my cheek. I lean at her touch.

"I like you so much. I really want to be with you, because you make me happy after being almost dead. I practically need you. But I have to tell you about my past." I say. She looks at me and smiles.

"You can tell me everything. I like you too. So, so much." I'm almost screaming and yelling from the joy. But I'm nervous too, for what I'm about to tell.

"Last year, my dad cheated on my mom and their marriage started to break. My dad started to drink and be away a lot, and my mother was a mess. I was the only one that had to deal with her. The only think that was working out perfectly was my relationship with my girlfriend Mindy. But some week, she started to back up and be secretive and, like, depressed all the time. Two or three weeks later, I decided to walk over to her house as I always did in the afternoons. When I get there, her parents and her brother were crying. They told me that Mindy had killed herself with sleep pills. She told me that they were going to move out of town because of her father's job. She didn't want to leave because I was going through a lot in my life, and I needed her. She left me a letter that in conclusion says that her only last wish it's for me to be stronger than her and to be happy again. You are making those things come true. I needed o get that totally over to work things out between us. I really need to be happy, and I want that with you."

After my speech was over, I was in tears. She came to me and hugged me, and when she pulled back, she said

"It's okay Josh, I understand. But, where does this leave us?" She asks

"Hopefully together." I answer, she smiles big and says

"Then, we are together." She takes my hand in hers and we walk out of the cabin. We pick up the photos and they are awesome. Specially the one where we are kissing. I put my arm over her shoulders and she raises her hand to take mine. After having some fun at the carnival, we finally get to my car at 9:30. We started a conversation.

"Where does your brother live?" I ask

"Alexander lives in Berlin, but he is planning on coming here too." She answers

"How old is he?"

"He is 20, and he is studying. He decided to pay for his own education helping my dad at the business in Baviera. He is really cool and centered. I think he'll come in three weeks." This family is perfect or what?

"That's cool. He is catholic too, right?"

"Yes, we all decided to follow God. He could be a lot more free and wild, but he is not, because in my family we were raised knowing that that is not life, let alone is happiness. When we are not happy, the sadness leaves us directly in the sin." She says. She is so right about it.

"You are right." I say, but when I was about to ask her more, I realized we are already in her street. I get to the house and help her off the car. I realize that I don't want this to end. I walk her to the front door. Her family would be sleeping, because the lights in there are off. I lean to her and give her three small kisses, to say goodbye. I'm so happy we had this date. I like her and I'm falling and falling more in love. There is no doubt about it. I trust her so much now, and I know she trusts me too. Her parents approve me, her sisters like me. Everything is moving so fast. But that's the way I want things to be.


	5. Horrible Beings and Hate

It has been three weeks now since Anneliese and I had this date. We had been dating and I know I'm in love. We remain each other of this fact every time we can. It's awesome how someone can change your life. Now, I long for living happy again. I thought I would never think that way about life again, and now look at me. We are at her house. There is Anneliese, Sarah, Jane, Drake, Lucy and me. Anneliese and I are the only couple. Jane, Sarah and Lucy are in some cushions they put in the floor, in front of the bigger sofa, where Anneliese, Drake and I are sitting. We tried to convince them that there was no need of doing it, that they could watch the movie from the other sofa, but they decided to see it from the floor. We are watching the Ring. Anneliese hides her head in my chest when there is a scary part. And Drake only watches with a dazzled look. Lucy, Jane and Sarah are in love with the movie. They are also eating a can of whipe cream. I also can say Lucy is loving Anneliese' sisters. They are really awesome. I don't know where her parents are. When the movie is over, I see Drake trying to figure out what to do to get to the car and leave. He has to give me a ride, because my car was in the car wash when we decided to come. Lucy hugs the girls good-bye and I kiss Anneliese good-bye. It wasn't a French kiss or something like that. It was just a loving kiss.

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2 weeks later.

The past weeks had been awesome, but there is something really weird to me. Anneliese had seemed almost…nervous. She's the funny, loving, sweet, caring girlfriend and she doesn't stop loving me, but something about her makes her look like she is nervous. Sometimes, she shakes her head like if someone was telling her something horrible, and her face look like if she was scared. I'm on my way to her house right now. Drake and Lucy are taking me there. When we arrive, there is a van out of the house, parked next to the sidewalk. In its back window, there is an announcement that says: "Parochial Group: Arnold Renz, exorcist and priest for 17 years, and Ernst Alt, priest. We act in order of exorcisms and expelling of demons. Call us if there is some entity of evilness next to you, and with the help of God, we'll expel them." I'm starting to get nervous and scared. Lucy and Drake walk out of the car and get to where I am standing. Lucy reads it and her face is full of worry. Drake reads it too, but is still calm.

"Oh, my God." Lucy mutters, and Drake asks

"What's the matter?" I glare at him and answer.

"They are exorcists, something _is _wrong." I say. Then, two persons, an old Lady and a tall man, I think is her uncle, enter the house. They are muttering "Poor Anneliese, she should be so scared", "Alexander is on his way, Joseph needs help" "Why her?". And things like that. I'm only expecting the worst right now. After they get in, we walk over to the front door and knock. Sarah opens it and she is crying. She lets us get in.

"What's wrong?" I ask, and she looks at me, crying harder

"A-Anneliese i-is so bad, she i-insults u-us and she-e is no-not her anymore. They th-think she is possessed." I feel my heart sunk. No, please, no, no, not again. This can't be happening. I have so many questions. I walk to the living room, with Drake, Sarah and Lucy behind me. There are two men. One is tall, he has the soutan, but he is young. He has black hair that is falling over his dark brown eyes. He must be Ernst Alt. The other is one a lot older. He should be like 53 or something there. He has a soutan too and is holding the Bible, while the other man holds the cross. Anneliese is sitting in a chair. The sofas are pulled apart. She is looking down and her eyes are midnight black. She is attached to the sit. It is so painful to watch her right now. Her dad is next to her. Her mother too, but her sisters are holding one another in the couch. While I'm seeing this, I notice that Sarah is seeing it from the staircase, because she is sitting there. She is crying, as her other sisters. Lucy walks to the girls and hugs them. Drake is only seeing, but I can tell he is sorrow by the look on his face. I feel the tears coming and I can't help but cry a couple. I have to be strong. Ernst Alt drives her parents apart to talk to them. Her mother notices me and calls me to join them. Arnold Renz asks Drake for help, to watch for her while we are talking. He gladly accepts, even thought he is scared. I walk to the kitchen with the others.

"Let's start with the situation here. Anneliese is obviously possessed. She is in a possessive state right now. She is not her. The situation will get worse, because her episodes will continue. Some other symptoms will appear, like cursing, hate for the religious objects, supernatural force; she will try to hurt you, either verbal or physical way. I advice you to keep her sisters out of this, I know they won't like to, but this is a serious situation, what we have here. With the help of the Catholic Order, we will find the ritual that is the right for her, and ask for the permission to do it as soon as possible. The _Rituale Romanum_ is the one that we think we are going to use, and is approve by the Pope. At first, we are going to do sessions to prepare her for the ritual. This is going to calm her down. At the eighth session, we must do the ritual. We are going to ask for medical assistance too. The doctor we are going to look for is the one that attends to our church. He helps us every time we do a ritual. He is going to be present, and he is going to check her all through the ritual. We'll need help to catch her when we are in the sessions and in the ritual, because she is going to get aggressive."

"This gentleman here, Anneliese' boyfriend, and my other son, Alexander, are going to help me with that." Mr. Michel tells him, and the priest nods and continues.

"It's nice to meet you Josh. Ernst Alt, priest.-he shakes my hand.- For my another advices. You have to remove the objects she can use to hurt herself. That's another symptom she is going to experiment. There must be someone watching for her. She can be the normal girl she is normally, when the demons are not acting on her. She will refuse to eat. The demons will make her do all this things. She will talk in different languages, mostly aramean and latin. She will refuse to sleep, but her body won't take it, she will be exhausted at the end of the days, so she will sleep deep. The demons can't act on her when she is in this state. I think these are my only words for today." He ends. I look at his aspect. He is really thin, so his cheekbones are prominent. That gives him an almost scary look. But he is fond in helping Anneliese. I look at her parents. And they are holding each other. Ms. Anna is crying, and Mr. Michel is not too far from do it too. Father Alt gets to the living room. Arnold Renz is reading the Bible. Drake is behind the chair Anneliese is sitting in. He looks sad. I walk over to her.

"Anne, sweetie, how do you feel?" I forget in that moment that she is not herself right know, but just when I realize it she says

"Don't. Touch. Me. Why don't you better try to take your "sweetie" back?" She says raising her head to look at me with so much hate in those black eyes. She said that slowly and with a low voice. I'm full of anger.

"What did you do to her?" I say, as low as I can.

"You are so stupid, Joshua, like your parents. Now we have Anneliese, and we won't leave in a long time. Who do you have now?" I feel so angered right now. But, they are right. NOO, they are trying to make me feel like that. "She" smirks at my first thought.

"Don't deny. Are you still too weak to survive your mistakes? Remember, there is no Anneliese to tell you that we are wrong." I can't stand it more. I was going to spat something back, but Drake cuts me off.

"Don't listen to "it", Josh. They are not even worth it. They are trying to hurt Anneliese and all about her." Drake says, as "Anneliese" raises her head to look at him.

"You are so stupid. You don't even realize the hate you have for each other. How much envy is between you." Before we could fight back, Lucy walks over to us and says

"Guys, stop. You are not doing anything. God is with us, but "they" are just trying to confuse you. You are not alone. We are not alone. Stop listening to "them"." We sigh, and finally let go. Sarah, Ms. Anna and Mr. Joseph come to us, with Ernst Alt in tow. Arnold Renz is talking to Anneliese' other sisters.

"Don't pay attention or try to fight back any thing "it" says." He says coldly. Sarah looks at him, then at Anneliese.

"It?"

"She's not Anneliese right now."

Alt kneels in front of her and tells her.

"I'm the one that is coming in His name." He says. She raises her head with anger and slaps him, cutting him a little with her nails.

"We are the ones within" She says. He keeps quiet and looks at her expecting for more.

"Think you can get me out, priest? Try, I dare you." His expression does not change, but I can tell that let him a little nervous. In that moment, someone enters in the house. Is Alexander, Anneliese brother. He is like my height, black hair, pale skin, and I can tell he works out. He leaves his bags at the entrance of the house, and quickly walks over to his mother. She hugs him and gives him her blessing. Then his father walks to him and he hugs them both. Then, his sisters. Diane, Jane and Sarah hug Alexander, while crying. Alexander is struggling now to keep the tears from falling. Mr. Joseph and Ms. Anna pull him aside to explain him the situation. Then, he comes and shakes my hand.

"I'm Alexander, but you can call me Alex."

"I'm Josh. The one that is next to the chair watching Anneliese out is Drake, my step-brother. And the girl that is with your sisters is Lucy, a friend of ours."

"Thank you so much, it is not even your business to come and help Anneliese, but still, you do. My parents told me that we are going to help him when Anneliese needs to be catch on. She could become dangerous, you know."

"Yeah, and maybe Drake would help too, but I don't know if he is so committed on do it."

"Thanks so much."

"So, welcome to the family jewel." "Anneliese" says. I guess his parents told him she is not herself right now.

"Leave my sister alone. Why do you guys do it, anyways?" Her eyes are angered, and I'm almost sure she is going to get aggressive, so I walk over to where Drake is and hold her back too. Ernst Alt attached her hands again to the chair, but she has supernatural force, so we have to handle her there. Ernst Alt tells him

"¡Don't fight what it says, Alexander!" He says harshly while Renz walks quickly over to us, with his Bible in hand. In that moment, Anneliese went rigid, so Drake and I hold her there, until Alexander came and helps us carry her. We carry her upstairs, by the time, she was passed out. We put her on her bed. There is a door that communicates her room with her parents'. She can sleep there and her parents can watch her. Her mother and her sister Sarah help undress her and change her. We got down. Mr. Michel told us to go home, that Anneliese was asleep, and that they would watch her. I was hesitating, but I finally gave in.

We got in the car and Lucy asked me what Ernst Alt said.

"He told us that she is going to get worse, because new symptoms will appear. That they are going to ask the Catholic order for permission to keep up a ritual name _Rituale Romanum_, that is the one approved by the Pope. We are going to do sessions to prepare her, all this week. At the eighth one, she should be ready for the ritual. They are going to ask for medical help, to check on her while she is being spelling the demons off of her body. He prefers the girls to stay out of this." I told them. I can't lie; I'm totally freaked out about what happened today. What I saw in her eyes, was so hateful, that it made me hate too. And the way they were trying to put me against God, and my family, was just so…horrible. The way they are getting the hate to all of us, is just ridiculous. I just want all of this to be over. I trust the priests, because they were acting with so much confidence in God's power that they are going to do it. They didn't hesitate in helping the love of my life. I trust God, and I know He will heal her. I really want this to end well, and I'll do everything in my hands to make this right. A long and hard week is expecting for me, so I get to my room, bath, and go to bed.


	6. First Session

I wake up in the morning, feeling kind of tired from trying to control Anneliese. I take a bath, and put a Slipknot shirt, jeans, and the converse. In that moment, I get a call. Last night I called Anneliese to check on how she was doing. Her parents told me that she was sleeping, and that she was calmed. Anyways, I answer

"_Hello"_

"Hey Alex, wuzz up?"

"_Nothing, just that my parents told me to call you before you go to school, to ask you to come to the first session today. The permission was given to father Alt and father Renz. It's at 3:00 p.m. Can you come?"_

"Of course man. How's Anneliese?"

"_She is fine, right now she is herself. She woke up this morning to play the piano, like she does normally. She is in the living room right now. Wanna talk to her?"_

"Hey Anne"

"Hey babe" Her voice is low, almost a whisper.

"How you feel?"

"I'm fine right now, but they don't want me to eat, and I'm starving." I'm a little lost with this.

"Who doesn't let you eat?"

"Them. The evil spirits." I understand right now, remembering Alt's words.

"But you have to. How are you holding up?" I ask, wanting to know everything.

"I'm scared Josh, they are so evil, and ugly, and hateful." She says, and I can tell by her voice that she is scared. I try to help her.

"Don't worry, they are almost gone, we just need to be patient and make this right. And Anneliese, please, don't doubt about God's power. They are going to try to convince you, but you need to ignore them." I say, encouraging her.

"Will you be here at the session?" That question hurts me a little, but I just want her to know that I'll be with her no matter what.

"Of course, I wouldn't leave you. Never forget that. I was going to stay with you last night, but your parents insist me no to do it."

"Thanks so much, Josh. When this will be over, I want to be with you all time." She says and I can see she is happy right now.

"Don't worry, this will be over soon. You and I are going to graduate." I say, smiling at the thought of end high school with Anneliese, and go to college together.

"Okay, bye Josh, you are going to be late. See ya." I don't know if she can keep that. There is so much more possibilities that she will be not herself when I'll see her. I'm going to watch her suffer. Last night I read about the Rituale Romanum, and the sessions are really tough. She has to do genuflexions (is like kneeling, but she has to do it a lot of times), so she can hurt her knees. And the demons will make her scream for hours, until she ends up spilling blood. The demons will make her take off her clothes, and hurt people. Her supernatural force will help her with that. I had a nightmare last night about her eyes. Those black eyes I saw so angered. "They" should have had a horrible life, to safe so much hate and make beautiful people like Anneliese suffer so much. I end with getting ready and go to school.

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3:00 p.m.

Here we are, at Anneliese first session. We are in the living room, and she is sitting in the chair. She is still herself. Before taking her hand and attaching her wrist to the sit, I look at her, and she is so scared. I lower my head, to be at her level.

"It will be fine. You will be fine. They know what they are doing, and besides, they are doing it with God's help. They will heal you." I say, kissing her for last time now.

"Thanks for what you are doing, Josh. You are the perfect boyfriend. I love you." I smile at her words.

"As you are the perfect girlfriend. I love you too." She smiles. It hurts me to see her so scared. Ernst Alt and Arnold Renz are in front of us, discussing and getting ready. Lucy is with Sarah and Ms. Anna. Diane and Jane are at their grandparent's house. Alexander is with me too, behind Anneliese. Drake didn't make it this time. He and his band are in a practice. He will help us when he is free. We have the help of another Anneliese' cousin, Evan. He is pale and tall. He is muscular, but not as much as Alex. He has hair in brown curls. He is behind us.

"Everyone in this living room that is about to be present in Anneliese Michel session, please come and makes a circle. Since technology has been present in our daily life, priests use a recording tape to listen the entity within express itself. It helps us to know who they are and what they are trying to do. These sessions are called normally by us as "death hours". Before she starts preparing with genuflexions and prays to keep her faith strong, we need to communicate to the entity within her. When we start to pray, I will need you to pray with me, to keep God's present stronger. Don't pay attention, either try to fight back, if demons took control over Anneliese. She can get supernatural force, so try not to be near her too much, when she is angry. Let these gentlemen handle her." I listen to Ernst Alt. He is fighting with Anneliese, to get these demons out. He nods his head at us and we make part of the circle while standing next to Anneliese' chair. I take one of her attached hand to let her know I'm supporting her. Alexander is next to her too. Evan is between us grasping gently on her shoulders. Ernst Alt begins.

"At first it was the Verve, and the Verve was with God, and the Verve was God. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, I order you to let me know your name." He reaches and put some blessed water ad pour it over her. She grasps tight in my hand. I look at her and she is crying, keeping her eyes tightly shut. Arnold Renz looks at her and says

"Anneliese, are you still with us?" She nods and opens her eyes. "What's wrong?" he asks again.

"They are talking to me." She whispers as she continues her squeeze in my hand.

"What do they say?" Alt asks her.

"They say that I'm cursed, and that I'm going to burn in hell." How can they say that? She does not deserve this. In that moment, she shuts her eyes again, and when she opens them, they are the same black as yesterday. I let go of her hand.

"Who are you?" He asks. Evan is shaking now.

"We are the ones within." She says and as we start to pray Our Father, she lets one hand out of the grasp in the chair and pulls me by the collar of my shirt. She looks at me in the eye, with those black eyes, so full of hate.

"Prays, cries and Bibles, do you think that this is going to bring your "sweetie" back?" She asks, and then she pulls me back so harshly that I fall to the ground. She then gets her other hand free. I hurry back to her as Alexander and Evan pull her by her shoulders. She then lets free her feet and lands the guys to the ground, but Ernst Alt, Mr. Joseph and I try to catch her as father Renz and the girls are praying. Alex gets up. She pulls us against the floor and pushes Alex against the wall. Evan and I hurry to get her before she had the chance to hurt Alex. I grab her by the waist and pull her back. Evan does the same thing, but she lands us in the ground harshly. All of this, screaming like crazy. They were so horrible screams. And her voice was a stronger one, like if there was someone inside of her talking with its own voice, but using her mouth. Evan was thrown against a table and there was a glass of water with flowers there. Fortunately, nothing happened to him. She started to smack her head against the walls, which gave her some bruises around her eyes. Alex, Mr. Joseph, Evan, father Alt and I hurry over and pull her back by our strong. She was incredibly strong and we almost couldn't pull her back. She slaps me in the face, like she did to father Alt. She pulls her father against the wall at the other side of the living room. Sarah screams

"DAD!!!!!" She walks over to him and he mutters "I'm fine, I'm fine, keep praying." We struggle with her for, like, 6 more minutes. Even Lucy helped us. Since she started to hang out with Drake, we realized that she was stronger that some guys even. Finally, she got rigid and unconscious. She had thrown me to the floor again when that happened. Alex and Evan catch her and I get up to led her upstairs, to her room. Then, Sarah, Ms. Michel and Lucy walk in. We get downstairs. When the girls come back, Ernst Alt talks to us.

"Look, today was a great step. We discovered some things about the entity. They act extremely violent in front of prays. We have it recorded, so the things that our ears didn't take, are in the tape. We want you to come to father Renz' house, so we can get to know what sounds or clues, or words we can pick out. They are a key for the session tomorrow, so we need to do it now."

"Let me get to my car and bring my equipment." Father Renz says and walks out of the house. The tears are starting to fall as I watch how messed up is the living room. This is the result of so much hate. Evan is bleeding because he got hurt when Anneliese threw him against the table. I feel a hand on my shoulder and I see its Lucy. I sigh when I see Arnold Renz get in with equipment. First they put the visual only. We see everything exactly how it is. The, the camera's image starts failing. But it recovers and we can see shadows surrounding the scene. When she pulls me by my collar shirt, we can see they are just above us. They are jumping with joy. That is so sick. There are four, then six, but never more than six. We watch it and when it ends, father Alt talks to us.

"This is serious. As you can see, there are six evil beings in Anneliese body. They are demons. They were so close to us. The only one they can communicate to is Anneliese. Anneliese is also the only one that can see them. I'm going to need your help in this. I need you to talk to Anneliese, preferably Josh or Ms. Anna, and ask her what does she see when the devilish hallucinations appear to her. As you know, when the demons are about to take control over her, she starts seeing devilish faces in objects or in persons. She can also hear demoniac whispers, as you could see this afternoon. To know more about it, you need to ask her. I don't feel I have the confidence with her to ask her by myself, but you, as her family, can ask her. I need this information for tomorrow's session."

"Do you think the best time would be after she recovers her mobility?" I ask, wanting to stay until she is fine.

"No, you should let her rest, tomorrow morning, when she is still herself." He answers. I feel so nervous and scared, but I need to be strong, and show Anneliese that strength that will make her feel more relaxed.

"Now, let's continue with the next tape. The audio tape." He says bringing the tape to the recorder. It shows her screams, at first. It is the only thing we listen, besides the praying. I'm starting to get a little worried. The audio tape ends and father Alt looks calmed. He tapes his chin with his thumb, thinking.

"Let's hear the audio tape, but recorded in reverse." He puts it on and at first is a little confusing, but then we can hear some words like: legion, priest, pain, evil, hell, worry. Most of them are a lot repeated. For the rest of the words, father Alt decreases the sounds besides the one we want to hear. The other cords of sound are totally mute. He restarts the tape and we can hear them completely. It first start after father Renz ask them to tell their names. One of them says: Priest, priest, priest. And then we hear a growl. I think it comes from the same entity. Then, almost at the same time as the growl, we heard one of them saying: Legion, Legion, I was in legion. I think this one is a nazist. Then, like tree minutes later, we hear: Kill, Brother. And a laughter. When we are hearing this evil laughter, another voice is on too. It says: Fallen, Angel. Then, we hear a growl. The other one is still laughing. I think they are laughing about how Anneliese was pushing us to the ground, the walls. And then we heard the word pain and worry, a lot of times. Besides the laughter, there is a growl too. The tapes ends and we look at father Alt expectantly.

"I'm having theories about who we are working with. We hear at first the word Priest. There were so much fallen priests that only used the church as an excuse to kill and stole money to the people. We are talking about too much when we say priests and demons together. If we want to know more, we should call a demonologist, and send her the tape and video. For the second one that repeats Legion, we could be talking about Hitler, or another nazist. For the one that says kill, brother, we could be talking about Cain. For the couple that says fallen angel, every demon is a fallen angel. It's like the first case. We will send these tapes to a demonologist, to have faster results. Pain and worry, are most likely feelings that they share. That's all you get when you hate, or when you do something wrong. That's all we need, if you want something more, call us." He tells us, as father Renz did too. After saying good-bye, I walk over to Anneliese' parents and tell them

" Please, call me when Anneliese wakes up."

"Of course, Josh. Please, you and Lucy have done a lot for today; you need to have strength for tomorrow." She says smiling weakly.

I give Lucy a ride to her house, and the drive to mine. I get there, and I'm so exhausted that I didn't change into pajamas. I feel so horrible after seeing Anneliese so scared. They are hurting her so bad. I can only hope we can make it right tomorrow too.


	7. Second Session

I wake up. I had another nightmare. This is turning in a torture. I'm counting the minutes for this to end. I reach to my cell phone and make a call. It's to Anneliese house.

"_Hello"_ It's Alex, he sounds sleepy.

"Hey Alex, I wanted to ask for Anneliese. How is she?" I ask.

"_She is fine; she ate a banana this morning. Her face is sore from the damage she caused herself yesterday. She even could get a visit form Jane and Diane. She is conscious about what's happening."_ I remember about the question.

"_Did you ask her yet?"_ I ask.

"_No, my mother is going to do it. She is praying right now, so probably she is going to tell her in five minutes or so."_ He answers, and with a yawn.

"I wish I could be there, but I can't be absent for school."

"_It's okay Josh, you are doing enough."_ He says.

"Okay, I will be there at 3:00. Bye Alex."

"_Bye Josh."_

I get ready to school.

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3:00 p.m.

Father Alt and Father Renz have just arrived. This time, Drake could make it. Lucy did too. Anneliese is asleep upstairs.

"Can someone tell her to come downstairs?" Father Alt asks. Sarah and I will go to tell her to come down and help her. Alexander, Evan and Drake are going with us. We get up the stairs and get to Anneliese' room. I can hear someone praying or trying to do so. The voice is low and cut. It's like the words couldn't come out. We sneak a glance to the room. Anneliese is sitting in front of her bed, facing the wall. She is sitting Indian style. The wall in front of her is full of rips. I don't know what she is doing, but she looks like she would be trying to eat something.

"What is she doing?" Drake whispers.

"I don't know." I answer.

"A-Anneliese, father Renz is here. You-u ha-ve to get d-down." Sarah says and her voice is trembling. She opens the door wide enough for us to enter the room. We tip-toe a little closer to her, and now we can see clearly. She is eating spiders and insects. I freak out, but before I find my voice to react, Sarah lets out a shriek, loudly enough for her to hear. Anneliese turns her head, looks at us, and screams. One like the screams she let out yesterday, but a lot louder. Then, she grabs little bit of her hair and rips it up. She jumped by her knees, three times. That's humanly impossible. Evan has to puts his hands in his ears. Father Alt told us to try to get her to the floor when something like this happens. So Drake, Alexander, Evan and I try to put her down, but she is so strong. She lands Drake to the floor and kicks him. Evan is thrown towards the bed and he hurts his head a little, but he stands up and helps us. Father Alt and Mr. Joseph come upstairs running and help us to push her to the floor. Mr. Joseph's eyes are as big as dinner plates. We put all our strong to keep her down. Drake and I are pulling her by her arms. Evan and Alexander do the same, but with her legs, trying to flex her knees. Mr. Joseph grabs her head to keep her from biting us. Father Arnold Renz, father Alt, Ms. Anna, Lucy and Sarah are praying, and pouring blessed water on her, but that is only making "them" angrier. Sarah tries to help us, seeing us struggling to keep her down.

"Sara, Lucy, back up!!" Mr. Joseph says, as they come to us. She is getting really violent. She starts to kick us off of her. She kicked Evan near his jaw, but nothing too serious. She fights us to the ground one by one. We are exhausted, and still in the ground, but right now she has Alexander against the wall. Then, she grips on his neck, trying to asphyxiate him. We hurry and get her off. Finally, after almost two hours of struggling, she gets rigid and unconscious. We pull her to the bed. She should be exhausted. After the struggling, we are all messed up. Evan's cheek is getting red from the fight. His shirt is almost ripped up. When she got me to the ground, she got on top of me and sat on my stomach, punching me like a professional. My head hurts from the fighting. She kicked me in the stomach once she was finished on punching me. Alexander's neck has the mark of Anneliese' hand and fingers. It was rough, I have to say. When she fought with Drake, she landed him on the ground and started fighting and kicking him against the wall. It turned out to be that the marks in the walls of her room are from her nails. When she fought Evan, she thrown him against the bed. She grabbed him by his neck and started punching him. Once, twice, he started to try to back her up, but she was really strong, so he finally gave in. It was like watching WWE. We didn't want to fight back; we only try to back her up. It was practically impossible. We get down and Ms. Anna offers us water and some snacks. After we are finish, Ernst Alt tells us:

"Today is the day when this is going to get worse and worse. You have to be strong, and have faith. She will start to hurt herself more. About the question we were talking about yesterday, did you ask her?"

"Yes, we did, father. She was hesitating, because "they" didn't want her to confess, but she gave in. She says she sees they have black totally black eyes and they have corns and crowns. That's all she sees."

"Well, one or two of them are definitely the worst. I send the tape this morning to Lorraine Warren, demonologist." He says.

"That's all for today." They say and leave. We get upstairs to watch her for last time. She is still rigid and unconscious. I know it could be dangerous, but I get closer to her and caress her forehead. When I finish, I'm the only one at the room. I reach to the door, deciding to leave, but a voice snaps me out of it.

"Aren't you convinced that we have your sweetie?" She says, with gritted teeth because of her rigidness.

"I'm not alone. But you know nothing about it because the only feelings you know is hate and pain." I say, and leave the room. It's so horrible. My head hurts, and I can feel throbbing in my face, from the fight. It's not going to get black, but it still hurts. She punched me so much times. We have to sleep for tomorrow. My stomach is bruised. A long, black bruise. We get to the car and we are exhausted. When Drake and I are in our house, my mom is in the living room, and when she watches us in, her face become blank and worried.

"What happened to you?" She asks, and reaches out and touches a little bruise in Drake's arm. Drake winces. Then she touches my cheek, and I wince, it still hurts.

"It's a long story mom. Remember my new girlfriend Anneliese?" She nods and I continue. "She is possessed. Wetter you believe in it or not. Demons exist, mom, and I have seen them. They are hurting her. When they take control of her, she hurts herself, hurts us, and screams until she spills blood, she suddenly has supernatural force. There are some priests that are helping her, but it needs a week for her to assimilate the process. At the eighth session, the total ritual must be done." I say. She only looks at me and says.

"She, well, they, did this to you?" She asks. She sounds worried.

"Yes, she has such a force, that she fought us one by one." Drake says.

"Okay… Just be careful. And if there is something about it I can take care of, just tell me." She says. I'm glad she is taking this easily. She liked Anneliese in the moment she saw her.

_Flashback_

_It was a Thursday at night; it was my day off of work. I was going to take Anneliese to the Premiere's. I knew her parents, but I wanted her to know my mother. Gladly, they were discussing something about the divorce that day, so my dad was at home too. On Sunday, he came to ask us to forgive him, because he was sorry. I realized that he needed this to keep up in his rehab. I take her to my home and she gladly said she wanted to meet my family. When she was in, my parents were in the table._

"_Hello" I said, dragged her in._

"_Hey" My parents said. They stud up and walked over to us. My mom said_

"_So, you are Anneliese. It's a nice to meet you, I'm Audrey Parker." She said politely and holds out her hand._

"_Nice to meet you, Miss." Anneliese said, smiling too._

"_And I'm Walter Nichols." My dad says and holds out his hand. Anneliese shakes it and says_

"_Nice to meet you, Mr. Nichols" My dad look at each other and smiling._

"_What are you up to?" My mom asks._

"_We are going to Premiere's. Are you going to stay here at home?" I ask_

"_Yes, call us if you need something. We should let you go. Have fun." My mother hugs us and my dad shakes her hand, and pats my back._

"_Bye" Anneliese calls, as we leave the house._

_End of the flashback._

I smile at the memory. I want this to end so badly. She is suffering so much. And I can't do anything to get her out of this. I don't want her to get hurt. I wish this was some situation where I can bring her back.


	8. Third Session

I walk over to Anneliese' house before school. I'm going to visit her and watch her out. I get to her house and enter. I see a weird scene in front of me. Anneliese is sitting in the sofa, with Evan and Alexander in front of her. They are talking to her.

"Hello" I say shyly, looking at Anneliese. She looks clean up, but there are some bruises around her eyes.

"Hey Josh, we are just checking up on her. She looks a little spaced out." Evan says. They both look tired.

"Did she have another episode?" I ask

"Last night, and it was tough to calm her down." Alex says.

"Hello Anneliese." I say as I walk near her. She looks at me with her hazel eyes, full of sorrow and fear. She looks at my face and her eyes are full of quilt. Her eyes are watery, and I can't stand that she feels guilty about this. I go and hug her; she cries her tears in the crook of my neck. I rub her back and caress her hair soothingly.

"I'm so sorry, Josh. All I did to you, I'm so sorry, it was not me. It was them." She murmurs in my neck as I kiss the top of her head.

"I know. Don't ever feel quilt about it. Okay?" She nods in my neck. She pulls back and looks me in the eye.

"I need to tell you something." She says. I nod, encouraging her to continue.

"They are so mean. They won't stop until the have hurt everything about me. Including you. I'm going to make you suffer so much. I just want you to stay away until they have finished, so you won't get hurt." She says crying a little. There's no way in hell I'm going to leave her alone.

"I'm so sorry; Anneliese, but I don't follow you in this one. I love you, and even if the time we have together is a nightmare, which is not, I wouldn't leave you." She smiles and kisses my cheek.

"You should really go." She says. I kissed her good-bye and walk out of the door.

The school seems a lot boring to me. I'm not paying attention as much as I usually do. All I think is about Anneliese and the sessions. I mean, I pay attention, but sometimes I space out thinking about it and it's getting me out of place. At lunch, I told Eric, Craig and Donovan that Anneliese is sick, and the illness is contagious. They believed it. It hurts me to keep things from them because they are almost the only friends I have, but father Renz told us to keep it a secret for now. The rain stopped about an hour ago. For today's session, Drake and Crazy Steve are helping too. Crazy Steve met Anneliese and her parents one day that he was working with me at Premiere's. When I told him, he started to get things as better as he could, so he wanted to help. We need help, because neither Mr. Joseph nor father Alt can help us, so we need more guys. When he explodes, he can be stronger than ever, because of the adrenaline. So now I'm on my way to pick Crazy Steve up. He gets in the car and I can see he is nervous. He starts

"Josh, how strong she gets?" He asks, parting his hair from his eyes and putting it apart to the right side.

"She can get us off of her easily. And she doesn't get tired. Yesterday, she fought us one by one. We attached her wrists and ankles to the sit, and she lets them free easily, too." I explain. He leans back against the sit.

"I'll help you. I like Anneliese and I'm religious too, so I think that's enough for me to be there. I want to." He says, as calm as he can.

"Who is within her?" He asks. We don't have the concrete answer right now, so I'll tell him what father Alt says.

"We don't know exactly, father Alt send the tape to a demonologist yesterday. But father Alt mentioned some we could be working with. He says that guiding from the tape he took of the session; we could be working with Hitler, Cain, a fallen priest. But there are six of them. Some of them are the most dangerous. We'll probably have the results today." At the mention of this, he turns to look at me, nods his head and focus on the street as he was doing just before. He knows some things about it too, so he is a big help. We get to the house and they are upstairs, in her room. She is not herself, I see it when I enter the room and look at her eyes. They are midnight black. I look at Crazy Steve, and he nods understandably. Lucy couldn't make it this time. I introduce Crazy Steve to father Alt, and then I get closer to Anneliese, and she smirks devilish at us all the way. When I'm finally next to her, she looks at me and says

"You bring a new friend, I see. Oh, by the way, where is Mindy?" I try to be quiet and not to fight back, and it hurts. They are so mean, but I spill back with gritted teeth.

"She is in heavens, different from you." I said, with hate. I can't help it, they make me do it. I don't like to hate.

"Uh-uh Josh, I know where she is and she is definitely not in heaven." They say. How can they get to you and make you hate. They harm you with the simplest words.

"Stop, Josh. I know what it is. They are just trying to hurt you." Crazy Steve remarks, looking weirdly at Anneliese. Evan is next to me and he has a weird look on his face too.

"You are so stupid. I don't know how you say you can get us out, when you even believe in what the one that calls himself God, says." Anneliese says, and now that she insulted God, we are all pissed off.

"Stop. Just drop it, okay?" Evan says trying to stay calm. In that moment, the priests appear and so do Ms. Anna, Mr. Joseph, Alexander and Sarah. Alexander positions himself behind Anneliese chair, next to Crazy Steve. Arnold Renz starts to pray, and so do us.

"In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holly Spirit, Amen." And after that, he pours blessed water over Anneliese, and he starts to lean up front until the rope in her wrists doesn't let her, all the way purring. We start to pray the rosary; Crazy Steve looking like a professional. We all have our rosaries; it helps us to keep ourselves safe. She is still leaning and looking down. We were finishing Our Father, she looks up and screams. We try to keep praying, but we can't keep until she lets her hands free. We hurry to get around her, with our rosaries now in our necks. She lets her other hand free and her ankles. She stands up, screaming all the way. She rips another bit of her hair, and we have to pull her down before hurts herself more. Crazy Steve gets in front of her and takes her hand to keep her from hurting herself. She uses her other hand to catch Crazy Steve's rosary and throw it against the wall. Alexander and I get on her knees and try to flex them, but she kicks us. Drake comes over and takes her other hand as Evan grabs her by the waist. Crazy Steve gets to flex her knees with his own, putting himself behind her, so we keep her from falling, by grabbing her. I take her head and try to get her out of motion by pulling her head in my lap, while she struggles with the others. She looks at me growling, lets her hand free of Drakes grasp and slaps me in the face. Then, she pulls the other guys, getting them in random places: Evan against a sit, Alexander against the wall, Drake under the coffee table, hurting his head a little and Crazy Steve lying facing down the floor. I try to pull her by her arms, but it's impossible, and before we could go and catch her, she goes towards the window and jumps through it. She lands on the ground of the backyard, still running. We all go down in the stairs and to the massive field around the house. We run after her, Crazy Steve and Alexander at front. They are the fasters, so before she could get in the deposit little house, that is in the backyard, they get her and stumble on to her that they knock her down. She struggles with them on the wet ground and fights them. We get to her and pull her to the floor. She takes Drake's lanky skinny form and throws him to the ground, like, two meters away from us. Crazy Steve and Alexander are pulling on her hands, to keep them in the ground. I get to her, but she leaves her hands free, but not her feet. She punches me twice in the face, knocking me down. She gets up and we are so exhausted, but we get up too. After struggling and fighting with her for three hours now, she gets rigid and unconscious as usual. We are messed up even more than yesterday. We are wet from the ground and the sweat, she ripped up our shirts, we have grass even in our hair, we are dirty, and our hair is messy. We are extremely tired and exhausted, so we lead her up and get down. Father Alt says

"Miss Warren sent me back an answer about the tape. Unfortunately, the truth is alarming. We were right about the first two. One of them is Hitler, and the other is Cain. The ones that didn't communicate to us are the worst. They are Judas, Neron, Belial, and Lucifer. And there is another one, the fallen priest from age XVI, Fleischmann. There are seven. Lorraine says that Anneliese is hyper-sensitive, which means that she has an especial connection with the entities within her. We'll try to find another hyper-sensitive, like Lorraine Warren herself, to keep another connection, another type of connection to the entities. The connection that Anneliese has is a possessive one that means that the connection is so strong that we can't get anything out of it. The type of connection we are seeking is a communicative one. We want to know what the entities are looking for in Anneliese." He concludes. I'm so worried about it. The beings within her are so bad, and mean.

"Father Alt, I have another question. Anneliese can't eat, but she is always starving. What can we do to help her to eat?" Sarah asks. I remember the image of her this afternoon. We can tell she is thinner, and she has some bruises in her lips and around her eyes. I can't believe I didn't notice that before. This is getting tough. I say good-bye and leave the house. When we are at home, we enter and Meghan looks at us and laughs out loud. We look pretty messed up. Drake's shirt is almost ripped up, he is dirty, he has grass in his hair, and he is wet. I'm pretty much the same. We sit in the sofa and we don't know what to tell her.

"We… were helping Anneliese' father in his farm, he took us there." I finally say.

"So, did some cow get you to the ground?" She asks, exciting to know how bad it was.

"Yeah, and it has supernatural force." Drake says, referring more to Anneliese.

"I agree." I say. Meghan looks at us and says

"You are so lying; I can see it on your face. I will find out what are you two doing." She says, giving us a weird smile before leaving.

"I think we should tell her before she founds out, don't ya think?" Drake asks removing grass from his hair and clothes.

"Remember about what father Renz told us." I say. I feel really down right now. Drake gets up from the couch, comes to me and pats my back.

"Don't worry, Josh, this will be over in 4 days." He says, and walks to the bathroom for a shower. I can only hope he is right in this one.


	9. Feeling Better

I get up this morning feeling a new strenght. I feel a lot better, so I think today the session will be just fine. I remember about Drake's words; there is only 4 days left, and this will be over. I'm coming over to her house with Drake. I'm really happy about how people are supporting me. Now we are in our way there and we get there. We enter the house and Anneliese is sitting in the sofa as usual. She doesn't look so pale, and she is eating fruits. We say hello to the others and get to her.

**Drake POV**

I'm feeling so strange around Anneliese later on. She is hurting, and it hurts me almost as much as Josh does. We enter the house, say hello to the others and go over to Anneliese, who is sitting in the couch eating fruits, which is good, since she hasn't eat almost anything last days. She is so beautiful, and so sweet, and… no, this is wrong. I've never feel like this. I don't deserve her and I don't wanna do it, because she is with Josh and they are so happy together. We get over to her and say hello. She looks at us and her hazel eyes are so beautiful and innocent.

"Hey Josh, hey Drake." She says, and Josh sits beside her and gives her a kiss. There is where something weird happens in my chest.

"Hey Anneliese, how are you?" I ask, she smiles at me and says

"I'm feeling really better; I actually wanted to go for a walk or something like that before the session. Father Alt told me it was a good sign and that nothing could affect me if my mind was distracted. I wanted to go with you, Sarah, Josh, Alexander, Evan, and maybe Diane and Jane. I can't see them a lot now and I want to see them." She says, I feel so happy about how is she holding on.

"Sure, I can go. What about you, Drake?" Josh asks, so happy for her, and I know she is happier than me. I can't harm them; I will back up, because I can't let myself feel it. I could never love her the way Josh loves her. They share some other kisses, so happy about this. They were made for each other. I smile and tell them

"Of course, I'm so happy about this Anneliese, and this will be over so soon." I say, they smile, look at each other, and rest their foreheads together.

"What will be the first thing you want to do once father Renz is done?" I ask her, seeing that she is in a good mood.

"My parents, my sister and I used to go to the beach, so I would like to go there, but with you, Josh, Crazy Steve, Evan, Alexander, Lucy… That's my only thing in mind." She says. I notice that her bruises near her eyes are almost gone. She looks normal. I would like to go there with them. We say good-bye and go to school as usual.

2:15 p.m.

**Josh POV.**

We are taking Anneliese to the park. She is a little hurt and rigid, so we help her to get on her feet, and walk, but she doesn't need so much help. Diane and Jane arrived so they are coming with us. I know they haven't had a normal conversation in almost a week now.

"Josh, what happened those three days ago?" She asks, while walking next to me. I was hoping she didn't ask that question, because I don't want her to feel guilty. I look at her and answer.

"The first session, you threw us to the ground and kicked us to get us off. "They" told me that they had you, and that I was stupid and weak. You got unconscious in a little timing. The second session, you were asleep when the priests got to your house, so we got upstairs and you were in your room, eating spiders, so we freaked out and when you noticed us, you weren't yourself. You fought us one by one in the ground. There were like 3 hours before you could get unconscious. Last night was the hardest, you got us off of you and jumped through the window, landing in the ground, but still running. Crazy Steve and Alexander got to you and knocked you down, you punched me twice, and you threw Drake to the ground two meters away from, and then got unconscious." I say, and I can see she feels guilty. So I add

"Remember what I told you about one day ago?" Her face lifts up and she looks at me smiling.

"Yeah. Thanks for the help and for love me, even when I hurt you." She says. We walk around the park a little bit, and do stupidities, so we have a lot of fun, but it's the time. We have to get back. We got in the car, and I drive the girls to their grandparents' house. When we get here, Anneliese says

"Can I get inside of the house to talk to my grandparents?" She asks, looking through the window as Diane and Jane get into the house.

"Of course, Anne. Guys, up!" I call to the guys to go out. The house is a little smaller than hers, but is really beautiful. We get down and I open the door for her and help her up. She walks a little slow but she makes it easily. She knocks the recently close door. An old lady opens the door, and she looks a lot to Ms. Anna, and she looks like a warm person. She squeals with joy and opens the door completely.

"Anneliese, oh my God, it's so good to see you. How are you dear?!" She says and hugs her tight. Anneliese hugs back with the same joy and says

"It's so good to see you too, Grandma." She says and pulls back. We get in and Anneliese introduces us.

"Grandma, these are Josh and Drake. Josh is my boyfriend, and Drake is his step brother. And this is Steve, Josh's boss and a friend of mine." She says and we say "Hi" and "Nice to meet you". She calls her husband and an old man, with a square shirt and boots, appears in the kitchen. He has white hair and beard.

"Hey Grandpa." His face lifts up like if someone gave him a million dollars. He comes to her and squeezes her in a tight hug.

"Hey young lady. How are you, how are the sessions?" He asks. They were concerned about her and she wanted to see them. They pull back and she tells him

"I'm fine right now, today I feel so good that I wanted to go to the park with my friends and hang out with Jane and Diane, when we were finish we brought them here, and I wanted to see you two." He smiles and then looks at us, and stops at me. He smiles even wider and says

"You must be Josh. I'm Marcus, Anneliese talks about you all the time, you know?" He says as he shakes my hand. I look at Anneliese and she is blushing.

"Nice to meet you. This is my step brother Drake, and my friend Steve." I say introducing my crew. He shakes their hands and smiles as wide as normal. He looks at his clock and says

"You should really go back to the house; it's almost 3:00." Then I remember the session. We say good-bye and get to the car. We ride in silence, nervous about what was about to come. We get in the house and the priests aren't there yet. Anneliese goes and tell her parents about the visit. She looks so happy and I don't want her to suffer the way she does in the sessions. The priests come in. I look at Ernst Alt, and his hair has grown a little since we started. Now he can hide his ears with it.

"So Anneliese, I've heard about how better you felt this morning. These are some good news." He says as he comes to Anneliese and hugs her. That's something weird, because his façade is a cold one, so I thought he was not the hugging one. He pulls back and smiles at her.

"Yes, thanks father Alt." He looks at us and shakes our hands. Suddenly, I get a call. It's from my house, so I go apart from the group and answer.

"Hello"

"Hey, Josh." It's my dad. I wonder what's wrong.

"Hey Dad, what's up?" I ask. He hesitates, but finally says

"Tell Anneliese that I say Hi, and that I wish she is fine. When you finish there, I would like you to come to my house, where I'm living right now. There is someone I want you to meet. It's okay if you can't we can do it in another occasion."

"I can, don't worry." I say, and now I wonder who it is.

"Tell Drake to come too." He says

"Okay. Bye Dad."

"Bye Josh." I make my way over to the living room where the people are and they look at me with curious looks. I get over to Drake and tell him

"Dad wants us to go to his place. He wants us to meet someone." Drake looks confused, but nods his head.

"So, are you ready?" Father Alt asks us. We nod as he goes to Anneliese and whispers to her

"Don't let them scare you, OK?" She nods and we take our normal spots. I hold her hand and she looks a little bumped down, but she is going to be strong. She is now attached and we are praying. She squeezes my hand and she is trying to pray, but like in her dorm, the words don't come out easily. Then, she mutters "stop" in a pained tone, and I look down and her eyes are shut. They are scaring her.

"Anneliese, they are talking to you again?" father Alt asks. She nods and bits her lip.

"Don't be scared, 'kay? I whisper, she nods slowly.

"Lord, have compassion for your server, I order you to leave her!!!!" Father Alt practically yells at the end. Anneliese opens her eyes, and they are black. Here we go again. She yells and lets free her hands. Evan is the first one getting near her from behind, and she grabs him by his back and throws him towards the coffee table. Unfortunately, with her strong, and Drake trying to help her, she pulls him down harshly by his hair. "They" scream

"We are not going, leave us ALONE!!!!" They scream, and father Renz fights back

"No, no, no, NO. I order you to leave!!!!" "They" make Anneliese put her ankles free and stand up; throwing Crazy Steve and Evan to the floor, sitting in Crazy Steve stomach, punching and ripping him so hard, that his shirt is almost shattered in the floor and his mouth is bleeding. We pull her down and she fights us in the ground. Drake is almost stumbling towards us, and Anneliese grabs his ankles to get him in the ground again. Alexander and I are in the ground trying to keep her there, but she throws us to the walls and gets up easily. She gets near Sarah and punches her twice, so hard that poor Sarah gets to the ground. Evan, Crazy Steve and Drake pull her back before she has the chance of hurting her some more. She struggles with them, and her hair is all in her face. They have never been so violent. Ms. Anna is helping Sarah and Father Alt, Father Renz and Mr. Rose are praying. She rips a little of Crazy Steve hair, and so she does with Evan. Evan and Crazy Steve are the most messed up, they are both bleeding. She throws us to the ground again, and before we could get even near her, she goes to the wall and smacks her face against it. She is bleeding by her mouth and she has some bruises in her cheeks. We pull her back, and she kicks me in my…intimates. I get red because of the pain and fall into the ground in fetal position. Evan laughs and Anneliese punches him so hard that he falls to the ground with a dazzled look in his face

"Now you are laughing, you idiot" She says laughing. The girls and the priests are now screaming-praying. She fights us one by one, like that time, and that takes her about an hour, then, she fight us at the same time, we pinned her against the wall, keeping her back against the wall and pressing her against it, so she can't make a move. We struggle with her for 3 more hours. Suddenly, when she is punching me and I close my eyes knowing that she is going to punch me again, but she falls rigid to the ground. We carry her upstairs, and I look at every guy there. Crazy Steve was bleeding by his neck (where Anneliese bite him a couple of hours ago), by his mouth and his shirt is ripped up. Evan is bleeding by his mouth, his shirt is a mess, Anneliese cut him a little by her nails near the jaw. Drake's hair is massy and dirty, he doesn't have a shirt on, because he threw it on the ground, when Anneliese was trying to hold him back against her. Alexander is sweating, his forehead and neck has some cuts all over. He stills has his shirt on. Father Alt is really sad, I can notice that because he is very quiet, and every once in a while he looks at the mess in the living room with a pained look. We talk a little about Anneliese situation, but nothing too important. They leave and we say good-bye, because I remembered my dad. I get out of the house and I'm driving to Crazy Steve's place. He is quiet and holding a cup of ice near his mouth. We get there and he says good-bye.

"Who would he want us to meet?" Drake asks.

"I don't know, but I would like to go to the house, so I can take a bath.

"You are so right." I drive to our house and my mom is working. But once we are in, Meghan looks at us and asks

"Again? What the hell are you doing in the afternoons?" She asks, confused.

"Drop it, Meghan; we are not in the mood for this." Drake spats as we go to our rooms. Drake uses one bathroom and I use the other. I'm still confused about what's up with my dad. I can't imagine what's going on, so we'll just see.

We are now well dressed, so we go to Dad's new house. It's in Belleview, and it's a house more or less like ours, so I'm proud he has a home where he can relax, now that he is going to Alcoholics Anonyms. He is doing really well; he had been clean for two weeks now. That's another thing that makes me proud about him. We get to the house and knock on the door three times, before he opens it. He looks a lot better.

"Hi Josh, Drake, please come in." He says, as we enter the house. It's really good design. I look at the kitchen, and there is a woman there. She is brunette, white skin, and I think she is 46 like my dad. I'm feeling a lot confused now. Who is this woman? I look at Drake and he is as confused as I am.

"Drake, Josh, this is…my… my girlfriend Jillian." I feel like someone just kicked me in the stomach. I remember her. She worked with my Dad in the studio of Daily's. Drake and I just look from her to my Dad. He is looking down nervously. I glare at her, then at my dad.

"Is she the reason why you left?" I ask him. He lifts his head and looks at us.

"Drake, Josh, I know I did wrong, but I just need you to accept her.."

"She ruined our family" Drake spats, without raising his voice, but the anger is clear.

"Drake… You know is not like that. It was _my_ fault." He says, emphasizing the word my. I look at her and she says

"I know you should probably hate me, but I didn't do it to hurt you." She says defending herself. This is ridiculous.

"Look, our family was perfect, my _Dad's_ life was perfect. Why couldn't you just… back up and don't try to break our family?" I ask her, Drake now looking down, as if he was in disgust.

"You think I didn't try? I tried with all my heart, because I know you guys were going to get hurt." She says.

"Congratulations, you made it. But, I have a question. What about my mother, huh? You knew her… She even thought you were her friend. Why did you do that to her? By the way, if you don't know, my mother got depressed for 4 months. She started to abuse of her medication; actually, I couldn't leave her alone because we knew she was going to kill herself!!" I practically scream. I can't hold myself back anymore; she thinks she did the right thing.

"Josh, CALM DOWN" My dad says with the same tone as I did. Drake tilts his head up and looks at him in disbelief and spats back

"What, Dad? Now she is living with you, when my Mom is doing the hardest effort to keep herself from depression. She pulled us apart from you, and you as well as her, without any type of shame, got away from her. When you guys did fight, you came to our house so drunk that you were screaming at my mom as if she was the guilty that your life was so miserable!!!! Do you know what made your life be as miserable as that? SHE did this to you!!! SHE did this to us!!! SHE did this to my mom!!!" Drake practically screams, pointing at her. She is crying now and my Dad can't even look at us right now. He knows this is true. I get near him and say in a low tone of voice

"You know what, Dad? We better just go. I can't resist looking both your faces right now. It makes me sick." With that, we both storm out of the house. I have to contain my tears and Drake is doing the same thing too. We both get at the house. My mom is probably asleep. If I see her face right now, I'm only capable of doing one thing: crying until I get dry. I go up and cry myself to sleep. I think Drake is doing the same thing, because I can hear some sobs and sniffles. This can't get any worse now. Oh, how I hope this is going to end up soon.


	10. The Desicion

Josh POV

Today is the seventh session and I'm feeling really relieved thinking that this will be over soon. Everything has been the same about the sessions, the same violence and terror as always; only that she is pretty much the same when she is normal. She hasn't repeat that she wants me to stay away until the ritual is done, but every time she sees me and the bruises in my arms and neck, her eyes become watery and hangs her head ashamed. I can tell she really wants me to, but she needs me too, and I need to be with her too. I'm coming from school on feet, because my car is in the car wash and I have to pick it up before the session. I'm entering my house right now, and when I get in, the first thing I see: Meghan. I groan and look at her sternly. She only smirks at me and tells me:

"I know what have you two done all this time… You and Drake were at Anneliese's, because she is possessed!!!!" She screams the last part. Perfect. Now Meghan will tell all the people she knows, but wait, HOW DOES SHE KNOW!!!?????

"How do you know about that?" I ask, and she calms herself down and tells me

"Look Josh, I'm really sorry about this, so I'm not telling anyone, and also, I want to help. I've read about it bunch of times, so I want to help you. Please." She says stressing the word please with a pout. I come to sit in the couch, so now she is standing in front of me. I really don't know about this one. I run a hand through my hair and sigh as I sit. She sighs and sits beside me, putting a hand on my shoulder.

"Look, Josh, I really like her. She makes you happy, and I want to help her, because she going through hell right now. Drake has a journal diary where he writes about when something's happening to him. I read that and he talked about how much she was suffering, and I just want to help, this is going to be over tomorrow, so what's the deal with not letting me?" I can't believe it now, Drake with a JOURNAL???? And Meghan wanting to help in the sessions!!!????? What's wrong with the world????

"I understand that Meghan, but I'm totally sure this isn't something you want to watch. The priests that are helping Anneliese told her parents that it was better for her sisters to stay out of this, and one of them is older than you." I say. She is 13 right now.

"I really want to help, Josh." She says looking down. I sigh and tell her

"Okay, Meghan, I'm going to talk to the priests, and I'll tell them about you. I'm bringing you there –Her face lifts up with a goofy smile- But if they say no, Drake will bring you back home, 'kay?" After the "but", she looks down again, but nods and gets up.

"Thank you so much Josh!" She says and walks up to her room. But suddenly she comes again to the living room and stands in front of me, with a sad looking face.

"And Josh, I also know about Dad. I'm sorry you two got through it. I wish I had been there to help you two out." She says biting her lip when she finishes. I shrug and hesitate a little, but then I tell her

"Don't worry Meghan; it was all too amusing and angsty, even for us." She nods and goes running to her room.

I go to my room and see Drake in his bed strumming his guitar. He looks at me once I open the door. He looks a little down, and I don't know why.

"Meghan knows about your diary. You're busted!" I joke and he only goes back to his guitar and starts strumming again.

"I know. And she wants to help in the sessions." He says in a bored voice.

"Seriously, man, I thought you would go nuts if someone knows something like that about you." He shakes his head and strums louder.

"Will you go to the sessions?" I ask him as I sit in the couch.

"I think I will, and I think Meghan could too." He stated.

"I'll talk to the priests, but I'm sure they'll say no."

3:00 p.m.

Here we are, Crazy Steve, Drake, Lucy, Meghan and me in my car. We are in our way to Anneliese's. We get there and I park my car next to the sidewalk. We get in and the priests are already in. I tell Meghan to enter the house with us. Anneliese is nowhere to be seen, so I think she is probably in her room. We say hi and introduce Meghan. Ernst Alt and Arnold Renz look at each other curiously and then look at Meghan.

"Why is she here?" Ernst Alt asks a little too coldly for Meghan, but she doesn't hesitate in answer.

"I really want to help Anneliese. Josh told me about what you said about younger persons watching the sessions and the ritual, but I like Anneliese and I want to help. But you are the ones with the decision, so you decide if I stay or I go. I understand if you don't want me here." She says, and with that Ernst Alt looks down for a moment and then answer

"Someone that believes in God and loves so much another person, is always welcomed to watch Him act and to feel his presence. She can stay, but you won't get into it too much, it could be dangerous, Okay?" She nods and smiles. Sarah joins the group as the priest Alt asks us

"Where is Anneliese?"

"She is in her room, want me to call her?" Sarah answers

"Please do. You guys go up with her." So Alexander, Evan, Crazy Steve, Lucy, Sarah, Meghan and me go up to Anneliese' room. Drake stays down this time. We go up the stairs to the hallway in front of Anneliese' room. We don't hear anything this time. Sarah goes at front of our group and opens the door a little, but wide enough for us to sneak our heads in. Anneliese is nowhere to be seen, from what we see. The room is super cold; from some days it had been like that.

"Anneliese?" She asks looking around the room.

Sarah makes her way in and gasps, carefully of not to scream. We get in quickly and we get stunned of what we see. Anneliese is in the corner of the walls, practically in the roof, holding onto the walls. She is looking at us with the pitch black eyes I know well. I look back at Meghan and her face is twisted with fear.

"Meghan, go down and don't come up until Ms. Michel come too, and call the priests, Okay?" I mutter, she nods and disappears of the room. Evan, Alex, Crazy Steve and I get ahead Sarah to be a little closer to Anneliese. Her feet are a little closer to us, well, they are against the wall she is holding onto. We need a way to get her down. Evan, been the airhead he is, gets too much closer to her, and Anneliese kicks him.

"Damn!" He screams rubbing the side of her face she kicked. She laughs and asks us

"Which part of "you can't get her back" you don't understand?" I hear some steps up the staircase. They get there and we start to pray. She jumps off the wall and lands in the floor, standing up still. Evan, Alex, Drake, Crazy Steve and I hurry to her and jump landing on her. We had learned that this is the only way Anneliese can get on the ground. The strength was enough to get her on the floor, but as usual, she easily gets us off of her until Drake is the only one attached to her leg while she struggles to get him off. Evan (that was thrown against the nightstand) gets attached to her other leg opposing movement from her lower body. She rips their hair and tries to kick them off of her. Crazy Steve gets attached her left arm and I get on the other. She shakes her head violently and struggles against us, but she is now unmoving. Father Renz and father Alt get near her and kneel on either side of her head. Father Renz keeps on praying as father Alt takes the cross and puts it in Anneliese chest. She started to scream

"Get it off, get it off" It was her voice still, but the screams were horribly loud, and we couldn't block our ears with our hands because we had to keep her from moving. In the corner of the room, I get to see Meghan praying with her eyes tightly shut, next to Ms. Anna, Sarah and Lucy.

"PLEASE!!!! GET IT OFF!!!! PLEASE!!!" She screams again. It is hard now to keep her from moving, because she is writhing and shuddering violently underneath us.

"In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, I order you to give worship to God and the heavens, and leave God's Server ALONE!" Father Renz yells, and as she says something in aramean I couldn't even identify, Father Renz yells

"Designate" With that, Anneliese only mutters "One, two, three, four, five, six" She mutters that repeated times. Then, she starts screaming again. Like two hours later, she gets rigid and unconscious as always. Ernst Alt goes to the living room with us and tells us.

"We think she is ready. Pray a lot tonight, because tomorrow, you cannot have breakfast. It's part of the ritual. Well, that's all for today."

We say good-bye and they leave. Mr. and Ms. Michel stay in the living room with us. Evan and Alex go upstairs, probably to get some sleep. She looks at us and tells us

"Won't you go home this afternoon?"

"I'll wait for her to recover her consciousness, I don't know about them."

"We'll go home." Drake says. Meghan is really quiet. I pull her apart because I need to ask her what's wrong.

"How did it go, Meghan?" She shrugs and says

"I can handle it, so I can come tomorrow, right?"

"Well, it would be cool. Thanks Meghan." With that, they go out of the house. I go up to Anneliese' room and sit on a chair, waiting for her to wake up.

Two hours later…

I watch as Anneliese' features soften, and I know she is awake now. It's now hard for her to walk, and her throat is sore most of the times. It's expecting to, because she screams for hours, and jumps by her knees. She looks at me when she notices I'm in the room, and I smile at her.

**Anneliese' POV**

I can feel my face soften when I recover from my unconsciousness, and the sore of my throat starts. Slowly, I can feel my legs and arms, so I try to stretch them, but it hurts. I take a look at my room from my bed, the ripped walls. I look at the left of my bed, and I see Josh. He smiles at me, but I can't form my own, my face is still a little rigid. He kneels next to my bed and tells me

"Hello, how do you feel?" He reaches out and parts my bang from my forehead.

"I feel fine." Suddenly, I feel the urge to go out of the house. "Would you take me to the park or something?" He looks confused but nods and helps me up. He is the perfect boyfriend ever, I love him so much. I feel like shit for hurting him every time I have episodes of possession. It will end up tomorrow, or so I hope. I kiss him on the cheek as we get down the stairs together. I have a black sweater on and jeans. My mom is in the kitchen, and my dad is reading the news paper in the couch. I love them so much. I get to the kitchen and hug my mom. She hugs me back and kisses me in the cheek.

"Can I go to the park with Josh, mom?"

"Of course you can. How are you feeling?"

"A little sore, but nothing serious." She looks a little sad but nods.

I get to my dad and do the same thing, since I can do it all the time, because I'm not me. Since the possession, I feel a gaping hole inside of me. It's like a hole full of sin and evilness that is now next to my heart. I hate how they say that I'm cursed, and that I'm going to burn in hell. God won't leave me, ever. Josh helps me walk over to his car and settles me down in the passenger sit, and helps me with my door belt. Josh sits in front of the wheel and pulls the car to the street. Soon, we are at the large park of Belleview. We are walking next to each other, side by side. He has to help me to walk a little. Then, I get a flashback. I see myself in different scenes of the sessions, when I'm not myself. I feel my face get a sad look. When it ends, I look at Josh, but he is not there. The person in his place is someone I never thought I would meet. The Holly Mother of God, Saint Mary is there smiling at me. I form the most sincere and happy smile I've ever put in my life. The hole in my chest is gone now, and I'm so happy and excited. We keep on walking, only that I don't need help for walking again. She breaks the silence and smiles at me.

"The Heaven's are suffering your pain too, Anneliese."

"Mother, why do I suffer like this?" I ask her. The burning pain in my throat is now gone.

"It's a big suffering of my heart, that the evilness is consuming the world. There is someone that has the power and faith to change that, and I'm afraid this person is you."

I listen intently on what She says; ME? I nod waiting for Her to continue.

"But you have two choices: you can stop suffering, and the demons will be gone, or you can accept your destiny, and suffering to show the world that God exists." I can believe it… I- I don't know what to say, or what to choose. She reads my features and says

"You have three days to make your decision, and I'll come back."

"Mother, I-I don't know what to say, but I will act how You ask me." I say, and low my head in a sign of reverence. Then, she disappears in front of my eyes. I immediately kneel and pray "Hail Mary". Once, twice, and it doesn't feel real. Mother of God appeared to me. I-I can't believe this. Josh kneels next to me and starts rubbing my back.

"Anneliese, Anneliese, you okay?" He asks. I end my praying and look at him. I really need him to believe me. I put my hands on his shoulders and grasp tightly.

"Josh… You won't believe this! Mother of God appeared to me!!! She appeared to me and talked to me!!! She smiled at me too!!!" I almost scream. He looks a little pale.

"Saint Mary appeared to you??? Oh Anneliese, that's an honor." He hugs me. I hug him back with so much force. I can walk, run, dance again. And my throat doesn't hurt anymore.

"Look, Josh, look. I can run and dance again. She did this!" I jump and run a little for him to see. He only smiles bigger and his eyes have the same sparkle they used to have. "And my throat doesn't hurt anymore! Oh my God, I can sing again!" I throw my arms around his neck and his arms encircle my lower back in a tight hug. Then we kiss a lot of times. I haven't been able of doing this for what seems forever now. We pull back gasping for air.

"Come on, Anne, let's get you home." He takes my hand and leads us out of the park. I'm grinning like a fool all the time we are in the car. We get home and I open the door at full speed. I run upstairs, to my parents' room, all the way screaming "mom" and "dad". I get there and my mom is sitting in the bed.

"MOM, MOM, YOU'LL NEVER GUESS WHAT HAPENNED!" She turns to me and looks at me. His eyes grow bigger as she sees me jumping and squealing in front of her.

"Mom, mother of God appeared to me, can you believe this???" She looks at me with shocked eyes and asks me

"Mother of God appeared to you?" I can't help but get a little mad at her skepticism

"Yes, mom, She did. Now I can walk, run, jump and dance again, and the sore of my throat is gone!" She smiles and hugs me tight

She pulls back and asks me

"Well, how did that happened?" She asks me sitting and gesturing me to sit next to her. I sit and start telling

"I was walking side by side with Josh around the park, and then I got a flashback, like a vision. I saw myself during my episodes, when I'm not myself. When it stopped, I looked over to Josh, and I saw Saint Mary. She was smiling at me. I felt so honored that I didn't articulate a word for like two minutes. She broke the silence and said: Anneliese, the Heavens are suffering your pain, too. Then, I asked her why was I suffering so much, and she told me that it was a big suffering of her heart that the evilness was consuming the world, but there is someone that has the power to change that, and it is me. I didn't know what to say. I have three days to make a decision, and I'm still a little worried about what to do." I saw my mother's face become pale. She looked down with a sigh and a sad looking face.

"Anneliese, that is your decision, but you'll suffer so much. I'm afraid of it." I'm a little disappointed of my mother, because she always told us to follow God's plans for us, when He'd call us.

"Mom, remember what you used to tell us when we were little girls? That we have to follow God's plans and answer when He calls us?" She nods and I keep my serious look towards her. "Let me answer, Mom. He is calling me. Don't be afraid of what's going to happen to me, if I have God, there will be nothing harming me. I'm going to suffer so much, like you say, but the world will be a better place. Mother I don't know how much this is going to last, but it'll will worth it. She told me so" The tears are falling now from both of our eyes. She hugs me and I hug her back hiding my face in her shoulder.

"Do the right thing, my daughter." She whispers in my ear. We pull back and I go to my room to pray. This change every of my expectative for tomorrow.


	11. Almost Gone

**Anneliese POV **

Last night I stayed up praying so hard for things to solve today. I told Josh that he could go to his house and get some rest for tomorrow. I still can't believe what happened yesterday, it's so surreal. And just when I recovered from the excitement, I remembered something: I didn't ask her what was going to be with today's exorcism. I don't know what to do, but before they come to my house, I need to talk to father Alt. I think that if I tell him, he should know how to act. There are a lot of things in my mind right now. First of all, I don't know what to choose. I'm terribly scared, but I don't want people to be damned forever because of my lack of guts, and God is calling me, I can0t say no. Also, I don't want to disappoint my sisters, Josh and my friends. They are sure that this is going to end today. From Saint Mary's talk until now, I haven't felt that gaping hole inside me. Neither the constantly burning pain in my throat. Neither have I felt the horrible cracking pain in my knees and elbows that I used to feel. During my episodes, people have told me how much I fought back the demons, and how the threw me on my back into the floor, how they made me hurt the people I love. But when I saw it yesterday during my vision, it's a lot worse than the people told me. I washed my hair this morning, and I saw that some of my hair has been ripped off, like I have been told. I put some of the hair of my bang in the little hollow in a side of my head, near my ear. I putted on a black T-Shirt, an old jean that doesn't hurt the bruises all around my stomach and stay bare foot. I go down to the living room and the first ones I see are Alexander, Evan and my dad.

"Hey guys" I say, they all look at me and smile, because I can walk normally again, and there is a lot of time since the last time I could dress in normal cloth, since I had to use nightshands, because that was the only thing I could rip off without caring the cost of it. I move to sit on the couch in between my dad and my brother Alex.

"My mom told us about what happened yesterday" Alex states, all of them smiling at me with proud smiles. But as I look closely to their smiles, I see there is a lot of fear and insecurity in their smiles.

"Yes, and I guess my mother told you about the decision I have to make." They all nod, and I can see tears in my Dad's eyes. I hug him and he hugs me back, sniffling and crying his tears in my hair. Evan comes and hugs me from my side, well, hugging both of us tightly. I hear him sniffle too, so I know he is crying. Since our childhood, I seem to be the only one that gets him. Everyone thinks he is an airhead, even if they love him, they still think that. Then I feel someone hug my other side. I turn my head a little and I see Alex' black spiked hair caressing my cheek. His face is buried in my shoulder and he is crying too. Soon, I feel my eyes burning, and the warm tears fall, mixing with theirs.

"I won't get away from you, ever. God won't leave me alone; you should know that as clear as you know your own names." I feel they nod. "I'll take the right decision, and you all know what it is." They hug me tighter once I say that, and cry a lot more. They calm down, and we pull back. When we see our crying faces, we giggle a little, whipping the tears away from our cheeks and eyes. There is some silence for a little. Alex breaks the silence

"So, what's going to happen today?"

"I need to talk to father Alt. I'll tell him to wait for these 2 days up coming. The day past tomorrow, I'll talk to Saint Mary again."

"Well, let's call him" Says my dad. With shaky hands he lifts the phone and dials the church's number.

"Eh, father Alt?" He asks as someone attends the phone.

"It's Joseph Michel, how are you today?" He asks fiddling with the phone's cord. We can barely hear the voice in the phone.

"I'm fine thanks. The reason of my call it's that, eh, Anneliese needs to talk to you, and it's really important" I hear father Alt's voice answer, but it's not enough for me to understand what he is saying.

"Okay, thanks so much, father." With that my dad hangs up the phone and looks at me.

"We'll take you to his house. There, you two will talk." I go upstairs for my shoes and then go downstairs. My dad takes me to father Alt's house. It's not very big, but really comfortable and has religious features all over. We get on the door and knock on it. Father Alt attends. He has his black soutan, it remarks because of his extremely pale face and his black hair, as black as the soutan. He eyes me up and down, his features lightening as he sees that I don't need help to walk again. He hugs me and shakes my Dad's hand.

"Hey, come on in." He gestures for us to get in. We follow him in silence until we reach his office. He stops in front of the door and turns around to look at us. He nods his head at my dad and he turns around walking towards the living room. He then gestures me to get in his office. I get in and he closes the door behind me. He sits in the chair behind the desk, and I sit in the chair in front of this.

"So what did you want to talk about?" He leans against the back of the seat.

"Something happened to me yesterday, father." He nods encouraging me to continue. "When I woke up from my unconsciousness, I felt an urge to go out of the house, so I told Josh to take me to park. He did so, and we were walking across the park, when a vision, or a flashback, I don't know, hits me. I saw myself in the sessions, when I wasn't myself. When the vision ended, I looked at Josh, but I saw someone instead him. It was the Holly Mother of God, and she was smiling at me. I didn't say anything, I was stunned, but She broke the silence. She told me that the heavens were suffering my pain too. I asked her why I am suffering so much. She told me that it was a great suffering of her heart that there were so much souls going to hell, but that there is a person that has the fait and power to change that, and that it's me. I didn't know what to say. She continued, and told me that I have two choices: Stop suffering and the souls go to hell, or accept the pain and save all of them. She told me that I had three days to make a decision. She disappeared then. After that, I've been capable of walking, running, the pain in my throat is gone, and my legs and knees don't hurt anymore." He looks at me straight in the eye, without saying a word, and it's creeping me out.

"That changes today completely. We can't make the exorcism. Have you made your decision yet?" He asks. I look down and answer him

"That's the most probably, but there are a lot of things in my mind right now. My family hasn't taken it really well. They are very devoted, but they are really concerned about all the things I have to go through if I say yes. They are afraid of losing me. My dad, Alex and my cousin Evan cried this morning when they were talking to me about what happened yesterday. They need me. That made my mind shake up a little bit, but I have made of my mind, I'm pretty sure." He taps his chin with his thumb and forefinger before saying

"What about Josh?" That question sent waves of quilt all around my body. I haven't told him yet!!! How could I forget? Oh, I already know, I was too caught in my excitement.

"I-I haven't told him yet" I say barely a whisper. He looks at me sternly and says

"Promise me you'll tell him after school. He loves you, and you should know what he thinks about this task. Also, remember he'll support you in every decision you make" I smile at this. I feel like shit in this moment for not telling him something so important.

"Listen, Anne, I think you should pray a lot today, so you can get some clarity about all of this. Different things are getting on your way to make your decision. I want you to pray to make your decision clear." I nod and he gets up, looking for a book in the shelves. I look the book he is handling, while ordering the other books in the shelf. He turns and meets my gaze, so I quickly look back at my hands in my lap. He gives me the book, and it's a praying book, full of Saint Mary's prays.

"Take this book with you, and pray as much as you can" I nod and walk out of his office. My dad is out in the living room sitting in the couch, and as they watch me go out. He shakes father Alt's hand and we get out of the house and in the car. Once we are in, my dad asks

"What does he say?"

"If it's not obvious, we can't do the exorcism today, and he doesn't know what's going to happen until Saint Mary talks to me again. Also, he says there are forces trying to keep me from reach my decision." My dad nods his head and pulls the car into the street.

"I forgot one thing, dad." He looks briefly at me and nods for me to continue. "I forgot to tell Josh about the decision I have to make. I only told him about Saint Mary."

"You should tell him, he cares immensely about you."

"I will dad." With that, the conversation is over. We continue in silence until we reach the house. You will probably think we love each other at all, and it's true, it's just that we have had a lot of problems connecting in our relationship. He always thought I was weak. Maybe because I was predisposed to be sick all the time in my childhood. I enter the house and look for the phone immediately. I dial Josh's number and call him.

"Hello" It's him.

"Josh, its Anneliese. I need to talk to you now."

"Do I get there?"

"Please do." I close the phone and I can feel the tears falling one by one, every time hurting more. This wasn't supposed to be like this. I love Josh. I love him so, I love him _enough to let him go_. The tears fall harder and it's like they are burning my cheeks. But that is the way it has to be. Someone's gotta go, and I'm sure is going to be me. I didn't come here to hurt him like that, but I can't stop. It's better if I go now. He will live even better without me, and he is going to survive. I just want him to know, so I can accomplish my fight knowing that he knows why I left him. The tears are falling harder and harder, and as I said, each one hurting more than the last one. Oh my God, my sisters. They don't know about this, the only one that knows is Sarah. Oh, this is going to last forever. And my friends don't know, nor the ones from Bavaria, neither the ones from here. Just thinking about it, more tears fall. I'm sitting on the sofa, with my elbow in the armrest and my hand supporting my cheek. I'm not even sobbing. I get interrupted by the door opening, revealing Josh.

"Anneliese, I..." He shuts up at the moment he sees me in the sofa. He gets near me and hugs me. I don't hug back. I don't have the strength right now. I just keep crying and the tears fall harder than ever. He pulls back, takes my face in his hands and makes me look at him. His eyes are clouded with tears, but he keeps them from falling.

"What's wrong?" He sounds extremely worried. I remove his hands from my face and take them in my own. The tears fall slowly now, but are hurting a lot more than before.

"Listen to me, Josh. I didn't tell you everything yesterday" He nods and the lump in my throat keeps breaking my voice, so I swallow and continue "Saint Mary talked to me about what was happening. She told me that the heavens were suffering my pain too. I asked her why I am suffering so much. She told me that it was a great suffering of her heart that there were so much souls going to hell, but that there is a person that has the fait and power to change that, and that it's me. I didn't know what to say. She continued, and told me that I have two choices: Stop suffering and the souls go to hell, or accept the pain and save all of them. She told me that I had three days to make a decision. I was caught in my excitement so I forgot to tell you. The exorcism is not happening today, and I think anytime soon." The last three words came out as a cry. Looking his face is only making it worst. It looks hopeless and scarred. "I should have told you… But I didn't. I'm going to take the right decision. I'm going to accept God's plans for me. But if I do, you know what is going to happen. I probably will be in this state for a long time, I don't know. I don't know anything if I say yes." The tears are falling uncontrollably down his face. I swallow the lump again, so I can continue. "And I've come to a decision. You can't try to protect me anymore. You are suffering a lot more than you should. I didn't come here to hurt you, but now I can't stop doing so. At the end of this, someone is going to go. So it's better if you go now. I didn't want us to fall like this. I _don't_ want this to end like this. But there is no choice. I want you to be happy, and I don't make you happy, I make you sad. I'm the reason why you cry so much. I want you to move on. It doesn't matter right now how we feel, because I just wanted you to know." He is crying, but he doesn't talk. His silence is killing me, so I reach out for him

"Say something"

"You want me to go, there is nothing else to talk here" The most hurtful tears come out of my eyes as he says this. "How can you ask me something like that?"

"I'm hurting you more if you stay" I say as a matter of fact. "And I don't want you to go, but it's the only solution"

"So, that's the reason you enter my life is just to get out when there is a problem" He just doesn't get it.

"Josh, you know it's not that. I need you to stay away for some time so I can follow God and do my best in this challenge." He only looks away and he looks pissed off.

"Oh don't say that, please. I'm tired of seeking God with you when he wants to take you away from me."

"He doesn't, Josh. I don't want you to leave, but you have to. The only thing that it's stopping me from accepting this challenge is you, because you are going to suffer even more than I." He looked at me with hurt clearly in his eyes.

"So that's what I am for you. An obstacle." He says nodding lightly. The more I'm trying to let him know that it doesn't matter where we take this, someone's going to go or at least get hurt, the less he is comprehending it. I take his face in my hands making him look at me.

"You. Are. Not. And you know that." Another pair of tears come down his eyes, as well as in mine. That makes me just give in. I sigh and tell him. "You know what, Josh? Stay, stay if you want. Just please do not cry or suffer because of me, because it is what kills me the most." His eyes get bright and he hugs me tightly against his chest.

"I promise, Anne. I'm so sorry." He whispers in my ear, sobbing lightly. And that's all I remember before I fell asleep against his chest.


	12. I want to stay

**Anneliese POV.**

I woke up yesterday two hours after falling asleep, but by the time I woke up Josh was already gone and Alexander was the only one at home. A little while after, my sisters and my parents got home too. I didn't sleep all night praying and thinking that today is the day; I will either accept the challenge or turn it down, which I'm defiantly not doing. Right now I'm just in the living room watching TV with my dad, Alex and Evan, while my mom is in the kitchen. They are all looking at me every once in a while, trying to figure out if I'm still myself. They must be anxious, but I'm anxious too.

"Anneliese, I'm going upstairs, if you need something, just tell me. Okay?" My dad says standing up from the couch. I nod and keep looking at the TV.

"Anne, is something wrong?" Evan asks putting his hand over my forehead. Alexander glares at his obliviousness while I remove Evan's hands and roll my eyes at the pair. Evan reads Alex' glare and remembers about what's going to happen today with a little 'oh'. With that, Evan goes upstairs leaving Alex and me alone. Alex looks sternly at me, and it's freaking me out.

"Can I know your decision?" He asks.

"Well, if it's not obvious, I'm going to say yes." I say nodding lightly. Alex sighs and runs a hand through his hair.

"The nervous are killing me, little sis." He whispers "I don't even know if we're getting out of this one."

"We're not, Alex." I say, frowning.

"I wish we were." He says, giving me a small smile before standing and going upstairs, leaving me by myself.

I turn off the TV and throw my head back. As I do this, I feel a burning pain in my forehead. I close my eyes trying to get rid of the sensation, but it gets worse. Hoping to go upstairs to look for an aspirin, the pain stops, but it's like I couldn't move. Well, maybe like I didn't have the willpower to move. I look to my right and there is someone sitting right next to me; Saint Mary. I press my lips together in thought expecting Her to say something, and so She does.

"Like I promised, I'm here again, and I want to know your decision." With that, she takes my hands in hers and smiles at me. I gulp a little from the nervousness and answer her.

"I'm staying, Mother." I say quickly, looking at Her in the eyes. She looks at me with the same motherly eyes that my mom has.

"You know this is going to be hard, and you're going to suffer a lot. But you'll see that what you are going to do will change the world." She says, and I give her a small smile. I start thinking that I still have a lot of questions. Like reading my mind or something, she says.

"I know you have a lot of doubts, but soon they will be clear. The key to face the demons is not to be afraid of them. You can't be fearful. The only thing that I can assure you right now is that I will come back and I'll spell the demons one by one. Be strong Anneliese, I know you are." With that, I close my eyes again, and when I open them, I'm all alone in the living room.

I feel my legs tremble for what is coming. I look at the window and as I look closely to the glass, I see a demoniac face. Like the ones I see when I'm about to be possessed. I try not to be scared, but it's hard. I feel some invisible force pushing me back into the couch, and I don't have the strength to fight back on it. I try to scream, but I can't find my voice. Then I feel a weight straddling my stomach and something taking a strong hold on my throat. It starts squeezing and leaving me without any air. After that, everything went blank.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**Alex POV**

I'm upstairs in my room, lying in my bed staring at the ceiling. The nervous are killing me inside because of Anneliese' decision, but she is going to accept the challenge. I guess if she does, there is no reason for her not to accomplish God's mission for her. It also means every single one of us to be affected by this. I lay and close my eyes trying to sleep. That's when I hear a shriek from downstairs, and judging for the past 6 days, I know exactly what that means. I quickly get up and go downstairs in a rush. I look around the living room, but I don't see Anneliese anywhere.

"Anneliese, are you… What the fuck?" I exclaim as I walk into the living room, finally spotting her. She is already rigid, in a very awkward and weird position on the floor, in front of the TV. Her eyes are opened wide and midnight black. I get closer to her, but she just says, through gritted teeth, this words

"Don't touch me." I pull back with fear. I need to call Evan so we can take her to her room.

"Evan, come down here, please, I need your help." I hear his footsteps as he gets down the stairs. I run a hand across my face, trying to regain control of myself, because right now I'm just in panic. Evan gets next to me and he notices Anneliese' numb form lying in the floor.

"She already said yes." He whispers looking at her sadly, and I nod. "She did." I agree.

"Dude you look paler than usual." Evan says noticing the look in my face. I shake my head and answer.

"It's nothing. Let's take her upstairs." We scoop her up in the couch, trying to look for the best way of carrying her up the stairs.

"Dude, hold her legs up." I ask Evan, and so he does. I wrap my arms around her torso and we slowly carry her up the stairs and to her room. I'm afraid of touching her because of what she said when I tried to. Once she is lying on her bed, Evan says

"You should go tell your parents." I sigh as I look at her. It's defiantly not the way I want my mother to see her, but it's better if I tell them about this. "I'll watch for her." Evan finishes. I nod and exit my sister's room. I walk to my parents' bedroom and I see my mom sitting in the bed reading a magazine. I still knock on the door for her to notice my presence. She looks at me and smiles.

"Hey Alex, come in." I walk over to her and sit next to her in the bed. When she notices the looks in my face and my out-of-control breathing, she gets worried.

"Alex, honey, what's wrong?"

"It's Anneliese, mom, she already said yes. I found her lying in the floor of the living room totally unconscious and rigid. Evan and I brought her upstairs; she is in her room right now" My mom sighs and her eyes can tell how much it hurts her Anneliese' situation, but she gets up and walks quickly to Anneliese' room. Once she gets there and she sees Anneliese, she puts her hand over her mouth and the sobs take over her. It hurts me to see my mother like this; I've never stood to see her crying. My dad hears my mom's sobs and he gets to the bedroom. He takes a look at Anneliese' body, before holding my mother against his chest.

"I'll call Josh." I say remembering about my sister's boyfriend. I feel bad about him watching her in this state because he loves her to death, but this is the only way. I take my cell and dial Josh's number. He answers

"Hey Alex"

"Hey Josh"

"Is something wrong?"

"Anneliese already said yes. She is rigid right now. I think she would like to see you when she wakes up."

"I'm going. Thanks Alex."

"You're welcome." I hung up the phone and go back to the room. Sarah is there too. I feel like my world comes crashing down at the sight of all of them crying.

"Josh is on his way." I let them know, and they nod as they hear me. After a few minutes, we hear a knock in the door and I get downstairs to open the door. He opens the door and I led him upstairs to Anneliese' room.

"Oh my God." He exclaims as he sees Anneliese. My family exits the room leaving Josh alone with her, as we wait downstairs for her to wake up.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**Josh POV **

I'm in Anneliese' room, waiting for her to wake up from her unconsciousness, but I can't stop thinking about how hard it is going to be for her to accomplish her mission. It's going to be hard for all of us, but we'll make it somehow. At least, those are my hopes. Anneliese starts moving a little, and I know she's waking up. I get near her bed and sit next to her, petting her hair, watching her twist from the awkward position she was in. When she opened her eyes, they clouded with tears at the sight of my face.

"Anne… I…" I say trying to look for the perfect words, but in this situation, those words do not exist. As the tears fall, she buries her face the side of my thigh, taking a hold on the fabric of my jeans.

"Please, Josh, don't leave me." She begs. I stroke her hair and answer.

"I won't. Ever." I continue to pet her head and try to soothe her.


	13. Maybe

**Josh POV.**

I'm heading to Anneliese's right now. Evan just called me (really frightened, I'd say) because Anneliese is not herself right now and the only ones there are Sarah, Alex and himself. Last night she didn't have an episode, but we could pretty much say that she wasn't completely herself. I can only imagine how scared must Sarah be. I walk a few blocks and finally spot the house. I run and knock on the door. Evan opens and gestures me to get in, at the same time that he grabs my forearm and drags me to the kitchen.

"Anneliese has been purring the last few hours nonstop. Look at her; she is right in the living room. What do we do?" He whispers/yells at me pointing to the living room. I grab his shoulders and shake him trying to calm him down.

"Calm down, Evan. First of all, where is Alex?"

"He is upstairs trying to find a rope." He says quickly "Dude, I sear I'm going to die" He said suddenly pointing at the wall near us. I followed his hand and saw the precisely moment where the crucifix resting against the wall turned upside down. I turn at Evan just to see his chalk white face with a horrified look.

"Ev, just go upstairs bring Alex here. Tell Sarah to lock herself in her room." I say. Evan hurries and I just keep looking at Anneliese, who is now playing with her hands, or so I think. The purring hasn't stopped. I hear footsteps down the stairs as Evan and Alex come down, anxiously looking around. They get into the kitchen and I gesture them to follow me. I advance slowly towards the couch Anneliese is sitting in.

"What is she doing?" Alex whispers from behind me and I shrug my shoulders like saying 'I don't know'. Anneliese doesn't even react, and I think we are close enough for her to notice. When I'm behind the couch, I lean my head forward to see what she is doing. Panic fills my body as I see what she is doing. _She just ripped a bird's head off. _Alex also sees it, but stays quiet. I try to look into her eyes from behind, and I realize they are midnight black. Now that I have a plenty sight of her face, even if it is leaving me standing in a very awkward position, I see as a smirk crosses her features. This is _so_ not good.

"Where are your prays now?" _They _say standing up. Her voice is grave, as if it was a man's. I gulp lightly as Evan shakes and pants uncontrollably behind me. Alex reaches out.

"I-I really think you should leave her." He shutters as _Anneliese _laughs bitterly_. Good job, Alex. _Evan and he take a step backwards, leaving me in front of a very possessed Anneliese. I gulp again and look back at them. I glare at them and take gaze back to Anneliese, whose eyes are burning holes in my skull.

"You know, Anne, you look lovely in that nightown, is that silk?" I mentally slap myself for saying that. Alex and Evan giggle, but their giggling falls as soon as they notice Anneliese's furious expression in front of me. Anne reaches out a hand and takes a hold on my throat, chocking me. The whole living room shakes as Evan and Alex try to get her hand off me. I'm almost unconscious when Sarah comes down the stairs.

"Patience, guys, I just called the priests and they are on their way." She screams as she takes a sight of the horrible scene in front of her. "Please, whoever you are, just leave her alone. I'm begging you." She says sobbing and crying desperately. 'Anneliese' smirks at Sarah's begging and releases my throat, so my knees buckle and I fall to the floor holding my swollen neck. Anneliese also falls to the ground, writhing against it, as her eyes darken and get back to their normal color over and over. I crawl shakily over to her, understanding her position. Alex and Evan just stare at her with angsty looks.

"Fight, Anne. Don't give up. They can't defeat you." I whisper to her and reach out to caress her forehead and cheeks. With a shriek, she gets unconscious and her eyelids close. In that moment, Ernst Alt and Arnold Renz burst into the house. They cross themselves and get over to us. After leaving Anneliese in her room and explaining what happened to the priests, I went home. I just couldn't take it anymore.

* * *

Next Day.

7:30 p.m.

I'm at Anneliese's again. She is going to have something like a session here in her room. Only today, she has had four episodes of possession. The priests are here, Evan, Alex, Drake and Sarah are here, and we just wait for the priests to set everything. Ernst Alt turns at us, nodding his head. We make a circle around Anneliese's bed, where her wrists are attached to. I can tell that she is not herself as I attach her extremely cold wrists to the mattress of the bed, and Alex can feel the same too. I quickly let go of her writs and go back to my position. The priests start praying, but I keep my eye on Anneliese, who starts leaning forward, all the way purring. Once she looks up at us, she opens her eyes widely, and they are midnight black. A wave of chills ran through our bodies. She let her hand free from the grasp of the rope and pulled her father to her by the collar of his shirt.

"Prays, cries and Bibles, do you think this is going to save your little girl?" She said before throwing him to the floor on his back. I quickly ran to help him, but I felt a hand grab my wrist. I was stopped by Ernst Alt.

"Don't stop praying" He practically hissed. I nodded and continued praying. A nanosecond later, Anneliese let her other hand free and jumped from the bed, chocking Evan. Then, she threw him to the ground. Next thing we know, she jumped through the glass of the window landing in the backyard.

"Dad!" We heard Sarah's screaming from downstairs as we got down the stairs to the living room and then out the door. We ran across the backyard chasing Anneliese. She gets into the stable, with us not far behind her. All of this, in silence; she only growled a little. That made us feel more secure about getting near her or touching her. I got into the stable with Evan, Alex and Drake in tow. Anneliese was looking around the dark stable in pure bliss, not sure why. The horses got wild once they had her in sight. When the priests got into the stable, Arnold Renz stepped in front, holding the cross right in front of Anneliese's face. When she looked at the crucifix, she got wild; she let out the most piercing scream I've ever heard, we had to cover our ears. Arnold Renz (amazingly) stayed still.

"I order you to tell me your names" Renz said slowly. I was freaking out, the rain was falling harder now and Anneliese's breathing was so out of control that I thought she would have and heart attack. I could even see the fear in Alt's eyes. I wonder how something you can't see can cause you so much fear and pain? Back to reality, Anneliese finally stopped screaming, but the surroundings are even scarier right now. Finally, she says something

"We are the ones within. One, two, three, four, five, six! I am the one within Judas! I'm the one within Cain! I'm the one within Neron! I was in Legion! I am Belial!" She screamed. We were all in shock, they've never been so violent before. I saw as two serpents made their way to our group from behind Anneliese.

"And I am Lucifer, the very Devil" She whispered finally before letting out another piercing scream. I can tell that the fear within all of us multiplied. I looked at Drake, who was standing near Anneliese with a shocked face. In that moment, I knew there was nothing we could do to stop this. We've already loosed.

"I order your departure, In God's name" Arnold Renz said. If he was scared, you wouldn't tell. His expression was almost nonexistent. In that moment, Anneliese let out another earthshaking scream, before falling to the ground. I walk near her slowly, afraid that she might be possessed. When I got near enough, I noticed that she was unconscious. I walked nearer and knelt down by her side. Drake ran to us and touched her forehead. Drake took his gaze back to my eyes as a worried expression crossed his features.

"She is burning" Drake said. I touched her forehead, feeling the high fever she had. I decided to tell Father Alt about this.

"Father, Anneliese has fever." I said as Ernst walked to where Anneliese was lying. He touched her cheek and hissed.

"This has nothing to do with the demons. It's her body. Take inside the house" I did as he said and picked her up bridal style,. I took her upstairs to her room. As I left her lying in the bed, Drake and Father Alt walked in.

"I have a question, Father" I said as I looked into Alt's tired and disappointed eyes.

"Sure Josh, what is it?" He says turning towards me.

"Did the ritual, exorcism or whatever this was work?" Ernst Alt sighed deeply.

"No, it didn't Josh." He whispered. "I'm afraid that she already accepted the challenge" He said looking at Anneliese sadly.

* * *

I got into the house with Drake behind me. I hurried to my room and I felt like Drake is chasing me. I slammed the door closed behind me, clearly not caring what Drake had to say. He opened the door and stepped in. I ran a hand through my hair and then over my face in frustration.

"What's gotten into you?" I heard Drake ask from behind me.

"What's gotten into me? Are you seriously asking me that?" Drake narrowed his eyes at my answer. "Well, I'll tell you what's gotten into me. My _girlfriend_, _the love of my life_ is possessed. That is something none of us can control, something that doesn't have a cure. This is only in God's hands, I don't know where this is going to end or if this is going to end. She is hurting and there is nothing I can do. I don't want to lose the love of my life twice, Drake. I really don't." I said, my eyes glazing over with tears.

"I know, Josh. You're not going to lose her. As you just said, this is only in God's hands. Trust him." Drake said before grabbing a towel and heading to the bathroom. Maybe he is right. Maybe this will be over in less than what we've imagined. Or maybe not.


	14. I didn't know

**Josh Pov**

**4 months later.**

The past four months have been horrible. Not only because since the exorcism intent, the things have gotten even worst, but also 'cause Anneliese's health has been having break downs.

She doesn't even look like who she was before; she is now skinny (since the demons don't let her eat), her hair is not as shiny as before, her eyes are swollen, etc. and I just don't know what to do anymore.

I'm now in her house waiting for her to wake up. Last night she had three episodes, and without the priests, we didn't know exactly what to do. Even though it happens every day and the episodes might be even worse, it is something I can't get used to.

Her knees have been totally destroyed by the episodes. It is logical; the girl jumps by her knees and gets rigid every time. Her articulations are sore too, but she tries to hide all of this from us when she is herself.

I sit in her bed as her eyes finally open (with a little effort because they are swollen), and she hisses when she tries to move. But when she finally stretches properly, she tries to give me a smile, but it comes out as a grimace. I smile back at her.

"My Anne Lisner." I greet her. 'Anne Lisner' has been my nickname for her lately. A laugh bubbles its way up her throat, but dies there because she can barely talk. "I was waiting for ya' to wake up, so I could go to school. I'm sorry." I caressed her hair (which was extremely soft still) and kissed her forehead.

Then, I silently go downstairs and then go to school. I really felt bad for leaving her, but my grades have gotten down since it all started, and I need to make an effort to be the same good student I was before.

* * *

**Alex Pov.**

After Josh was gone, it was all me who had to take care of Anneliese, so I went upstairs. I was glad that she was herself, but I couldn't help but being afraid if she went into a possession state. I got upstairs and to Anneliese's room, which was still extremely cold. I knocked on the door so she could notice me, and she turned to the door, nodding lightly. I grab a chair and put it beside her bed, so I could talk to her.

"Hello, Anne." I said as I looked at her aspect. She was now a whole different person in comparison with who she was before. "Can you talk?" I asked her. She nodded.

"Enough to tell you what I'm about to." She said. I frowned at her words; What would exactly mean? "Can you please bring a pen and a sheet of paper?" I nodded and went downstairs. I did as she said and went back upstairs. My hands were shaking from the anxiousness. She forced a smile and nodded towards the chair I was sitting in.

"Are you going to write something?" I asked. She laughed a little. It still amazed me how someone could suffer so much and still have a little of happiness. She shook her head at me.

"Alex, I can't. Look at my hands" She raised her stiff hands at me. "Can you write something for me?" She asked, and I couldn't say no. I nodded and picked up the pen, resting the sheet of paper in the bed beside her.

"_Dear Josh:_

_It's been a really difficult year for you, and I'm really sorry because I know I was part of that pain. By the time you're reading this, I'll be gone forever, and even though you love me, it will be the best for you. I never thought this was going to be so hard, but I finally realized why. _

_You don't know what pain is until you've gone through it, and I've been there, Josh. I thought that if I said 'yes', I would save a lot of souls, but at what cost? I didn't know until now. I never thought there would be creatures like them; so mean, so dark, so hateful. It's incredible how they can force a human and turn you into what you're not. You have no more control of yourself. They can make you hurt the people you love, and make you hate. But by the time I've discovered this, I had already said yes. _

_It's all my fault, but with this experience, I also learned something, and I want you to know it too. I learned that peace is only where love is. It's enough a smile to feel a little glance of peace. And you have to be happy, 'cause every sixty seconds of your life you spend angry or upset, means one minute of happiness you'll never get back. I love you, Josh. So much. Even in my pain and tragedy, I kept the hopes that it would all end, and we could get married. Also, never stop believing in God, because He can do amazing things for you._

_P.D.: I'll always be your 'Anne Lisner'. _

_Love you always,_

_Anneliese Marie Michel. "_

By the time I finished writing, I couldn't even think straight. What was this? A suicide note? I think Anneliese read my features, because I felt a hand on my back. I looked at her and her eyes were watery.

"What is this, Anne?" I asked her in a whisper.

"I'm sorry, Alex, but tomorrow is my last day. And I want you to give this to Josh." I nodded and finally let the tears fall from my eyes. "But Alex, promise me something; you can't tell anyone. This is our secret, okay?" She told me. I nodded and gave her fragile body a hug full of meaning.

"I love you, Anne. You'll always be my little sister" I told her, and she started sobbing a little harder. "Sshh… It's okay, Anne. It's finally over." I whispered in her ear. She nodded. "I'm going downstairs. It's Evan's turn" I said with a little smile. She nodded again.

I went downstairs, still sad and overwhelmed by what Anneliese just told me. When I got to the living room, I saw Evan and Sarah sitting in the couch.

"Evan, it's your turn." I said, trying to stay calmed. Sarah frowned at me, noticing.

"Are you okay, Alex?" She asked me. I nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine." She seemed reluctant, but nodded also.

I definitely was not.

* * *

**Next Day**

**Josh Pov.**

I went to Anneliese house in the morning as usual. Everyone seemed fine excepting for Alex, who looked extremely anxious and sad. I kept asking him what was wrong, but he didn't tell me, so I decided to just let it go. I went upstairs and entered Anneliese's room. Surprisingly, it wasn't cold anymore. Anneliese was lying in her bed, facing the opposite wall. I sat next to her, but noticed she wasn't breathing.

"Anne Lisner. Anne. Wake up, baby. I'm here." When I got no response, I started freaking out. I put my hands on her fragile body and started shaking her. When I still got no response, I turned her body so she was lying facing the ceiling. I touched her pulse point, but it didn't have any pulse. "Miss Anna, Mr. Joseph, Sarah, Evan, Alex, please come up here! Anneliese is not breathing!" I yelled. I heard their footsteps up the stairs until they reached the room. Miss Anna reached her hands to her mouth and covered it, crying.

"My girl… My daughter…!" Miss Anna exclaimed in-between sobs. Mr. Joseph came behind her and started crying too. Sarah knelt next to Anneliese's bed and took the lifeless hand between her own. Evan buried his face in his hands and sat in the floor. Alex just started crying and crossed himself.

"Oh, God, Josh." Alex exclaimed as he looked at me in the eyes. He went to me and hugged me tight, sobbing. He pulled back a little after.

"How are we going to tell Jane and Diane?" Sarah asked breathless. At the mention of Anneliese's other sisters, Alex sobbed harder. "We have to call them. And the grandpas, and the priests. Oh God." Sarah added. I thought about Drake and Lucy, they've always been there for Anneliese, so I decided I should call them. As everyone went downstairs, I went too, but a hand caught my wrist. I turned and saw Alex, still shaking with sobs.

"I have to give you something, Josh." With that, he took out an envelope with a letter inside and handed it to me. "Anneliese asked me to write this to you yesterday." He whispered sobbing.

"So you knew about this?" I asked him.

"Yes I did, but Anneliese made me promise her I wouldn't tell anyone." With that, he went downstairs. I opened the letter and read it.

_Dear Josh:_

_It's been a really difficult year for you, and I'm really sorry because I know I was part of that pain. By the time you're reading this, I'll be gone forever, and even though you love me, it will be the best for you. I never thought this was going to be so hard, but I finally realized why. _

_You don't know what pain is until you've gone through it, and I've been there, Josh. I thought that if I said 'yes', I would save a lot of souls, but at what cost? I didn't know until now. I never thought there would be creatures like them; so mean, so dark, so hateful. It's incredible how they can force a human and turn you into what you're not. You have no more control of yourself. They can make you hurt the people you love, and make you hate. But by the time I've discovered this, I had already said yes. _

_It's all my fault, but with this experience, I also learned something, and I want you to know it too. I learned that peace is only where love is. It's enough a smile to feel a little glance of peace. And you have to be happy, 'cause every sixty seconds of your life you spend angry or upset, means one minute of happiness you'll never get back. I love you, Josh. So much. Even in my pain and tragedy, I kept the hopes that it would all end, and we could get married. Also, never stop believing in God, because He can do amazing things for you._

_P.D.: I'll always be your 'Anne Lisner'. _

_Love you always,_

_Anneliese Marie Michel_

With that, I sobbed harder. Even though she suffered so much, she still blamed herself. With that I went out of the house and never came back.

Two days later, it was her funeral. With Drake, Crazy Steve, Evan, Alex and Mr. Joseph, I carried her coffin to the graveyard. It was a whole road of sorrow I'll never forget.

But as Anneliese told me to, I never stopped believing in God. Maybe someday, I'll learn to love someone as much as I loved Anneliese or Mindy, but it's going to be hard. It probably will be impossible.


End file.
